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THE FAR PA 



THE 






BRIGHT SIDE 

OF 

HUMANITY 



GLIMPSES OF LIFE 
IN EVERY LAND 

SHOWING THE 

DISTINCTIVE NOBLE TRAITS 
OF ALL RACES 




Superblg Jllustrateb mi\) more 
tl)on (S>nc ^nnhxeh i§alf-®one 
Cngraoinga 



RICHMOND, VA.: 

THE B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHNG CO. 



B5945 

j 'Vit tjnti Htctweo 
I OCT 25 1900 

SICOND COPY. 
OROt« WVIS10N, 

OCT 26 190U 



Copyright, 1900, 
B. F. JOHNSON PUBLISHING COMPANY. 






».•* i .• / 



Preface 



In the arrangement of this volume I have avoided the* 
conventional grouping of subjects according to geographical 
or political relations, and have sought to secure as far as prac- 
ticable such variety as would enhance the pleasure of the gen- 
eral reader. This will explain not only the apparent lack of 
formal arrangement, but also the omission of some familiar 
names which one would ordinarily expect to find in a book of 
this character. For instance, there is no chapter devoted to 
the Austrians, as such, for the reason that they are Germans? 
and Austria is only a "political expression." An exception 
has been made in favor of the Swiss who, though being 
but the overflow population of surrounding countries, have 
lived to themselves long enough to develop some characteristic 
traits. 

The widely varying character of the several chapters is 
due chiefly to the fact that I have contented myself with the 
available material without calling in the aid of the imagination 
or a superfluous vocabulary. The material for such a volume 
is by no means as plentiful as might be supposed, and although 
I have had access to nearly all the literature on the subject,, 
and in addition have had the assistance of many eminent mis- 

(3) 



4 PREFACE. 

sionaries throughout the world, I have been compelled to dis- 
miss some of the races with comparatively scant notice. It 
may be added that a work prepared under such circumstances 
could hardly be free from errors, though no pains have been 
spared to protect the present volume from mistakes of a serious 
nature. 

While it is manifestly impossible to acknowledge all the 
sources of information to which I am indebted, I have tried, 
in the body of the book, to give due credit for all passages 
quoted. 



Contents. 



FOR ALPHABHTICAL LIST OF RACES TREATED SEE INDEX. 



PAGE 

I. INTRODUCTORY . . . . . • • • ^7 

II. THE HOSPITABLE ARAB ...... 25 

Remarkable Instances of Hospitality Among the Bed ween — Burckhardt's 
Experience — A Noble Shaykh — Dr. Trumbull Among the " Azazimen" — The 
Idea of Sanctuary— Arabian Brigandage — The Arab's Love for his Children — 
Arabians as Christians. 

III. THE STRENGTH OF SPAIN . . . . . .41 

Merciless Criticisms of the Spanish — Spanish Women Virtuous — Spanish Love- 
making — Good Manners the Stay and Support of Spain — Civility and Cere- 
mony — Where Man Trusts Man — Spanish Charity. 

IV. GLEAMS FROM DARKEST AFRICA . . . . .5° 

The Kindness of the African — Livingstone's Experience — Politeness in Offer- 
ing Food — High Sense of Honor Among the Kaffirs — Good Humor of the 
Hottentots — "The Merry People" — The Story of Uledi — A Remarkable 
Funeral Procession — Deference Shown to Women — Bunder — A Noble Speci- 
men of Manhood. 

V. PLEASANT FRANCE . . . . . . 70 

Popular Notions of the Frenchman — His Faultless Taste — His Amiability — 
The Thrift of the People — The Misunderstood Frenchwoman — Morality Not 
Lower Than Among Other Nations — How French Girls Are Brought Up — 
Marriage — The Bretons — Striking Characteristics — An Important Personage. 

VI. GYPSIES ......... 78 

Origin — Gypsy Courtesy — Readiness to Forgive — Hospitality — " The Most 
Violent Acts of Honesty " — Reverence for the Dead — Natural Shrewdness. 

(5) 



3 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

VII. IN SUNNY ITALY 83 

" The Prime Climate of Compliment " — Italian Politeness — Gentleness and 
Kindness — Desire to Please — Complimentary Phrases — Mr. Howell's Observa- 
tions in Venice — Courtesy of Railway and Hotel Employees — Consideration 
Which Laborers Have for One Another. 



VIIL LAND .OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN . . , . .99 

Remarkable Instances of Honesty — " Evident .Stamp of Their Purity " — Sim- 
plicity of Heart — Neatness and Order in the Home — The Scandinavian Peas- 
ant's Consideration for his Horse — Hospitality — Reverence for the Truth — 
Consideration for the Pauper — The Beautiful Religious Life of the Icelander. 



IX. THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE SOUTH SEA . . . .113 

The Polynesians — Ideas of Hospitality — Position of Woman — The Maoris or 
New Zealanders — Passion for Fighting for its Own Sake — Gallantry and For- 
bearance in War — The Malay Archipelago — The Dyaks — The Good Humored 
Tahitians — The Polite Fijiians — Respect for Woman Among the Tongans — 
The Gentle Samoans — The Papuans — Their Honesty — The Australians. 



X. THE TIDIEST NATION 135 

The Hollanders — The Most Industrious People on Earth — Their Charitable 
Institutions — Their Passion for Cleanliness. 



XI. UNDER THE CZAR . . . . . . .141 

The Russian's Docile Disposition — Virtues of the Peasantry — The Russian 
not Vindictive — "A Child With a Child's Faults" — Siberian Exile Grossly 
Misrepresented — The Samoyedes. 



XII. THE MALAGASY . . . . . . . . 149 

Civilization in Madagascar — The Malagasy Religion — Excessive 'but Genuine 
Politeness — A Beautiful Chapter in the History of Christian Heroism — 
Changes Wrought by Christianity. 



XIIL THE FRENCHMAN OF THE EAST ..... 161 

Old-time Notions of Japan — Central Characteristic of the Japanese — Amus- 
ing Forms of Politeness — Bows and Genuflections — Beautiful Home Life of the 
Japanese — Depth of Feeling for Children — A Robber Charmed by the Smiles 
of a Baby — Parental and Filial Devotion — Sweetness of Disposition in Japanese 
Women — Honesty — Father Oshima — " The Japanese Worth Saving." 



CONTENTS. 7 

PAGE 

XIV. THE CHIVALROUS MEXICAN 187 

The Gracious Hospitality of the Mexican — Charity of the Mexican Women 
— Reverence for Parents — Attachment for Kindred — A Knightly Race. 



XV. A PEOPLE WHO CANNOT HATE . . . .195 

Hawaiians Incapable of Cherishing Ill-feeling — A Story of Marvelous Pro- 
gress — Heroic Hawaiian Converts — The Princess Kapiolani. 



XVI. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE INDIAN . . . .209 

Early Glimpses of Indian Character — Worshiping the Great Spirit — The 
Winnebagoes — The Indian a Deeply Religious Being — The Christian In- 
dian's Regard for the Sabbath — The Lacotahs — Among the Sioux — The 
Indian's Home Life — His Consideration for his Guests — His Tender Feel- 
ing for Children — Captain Cusson's Tribute to the Memory of " Sitting Bull." 



XVIL THE FILIPINOS . . 231 

Aborigines of the Philippines — Stoicism Among the Filipinos — Family 
Affection — Sober and Clean — Passion for Music. 



XVIII. THE GENTLE ESKIMOS .241 

Their Hospitality to Strangers — Love for One's Neighbor — Quiet and Gentle 
Manners — They Do Not Know How to Quarrel — Bubbling Over with 
Good Spirits — Fondness for Children — Devotion to Home and Country. 



XIX. HINDU TRAITS ........ 245 

Hindu Gratitude — Honesty — The Bengalees the Bravest of Asiatics — The 
Parsees — Hospitality — Zeal of Christian Hindus — The Chamber of Anger 
— Hospitals for Animals — The Taj. 



XX. A HINDU SCHOLAR'S VIEW OF INDIA . . . . 273 

Observations of G. L. Shakur Doss — India a Changing Country — Influences, 
at Work — Results of the Preaching of the Gospel Among the Higher 
Classes — Among the Lower Classes — Strength of Christianity in India — 
Eminent Hindu Converts to Christianity. 



XXI. BRAZILIAN BONHOMIE 297 

A Generous, Whole-souled Folk — Delight in Helping One Another — A 
High Sense of Honor — Devotion to Parents — Beautiful Customs. 



C0NTE]S'T8. 



XXII. THE AMERICAN NEGRO . . . . . .303 

Ignorance Concerning the Negro and his Problems — Coasting Africa 
with a Kodak — The Negro has no Grudge Against Society — Conditions 
not so Discouraging as is Popularly Supposed — The Negro not Criminal 
as a Race — Our Largest Criminal Factory — Struggles of the Race — Our 
Neglect to Provide Moral Restraints — Not a Hopeless Problem of 
Degeneracy. 



XXIII. THE AMERICAN NEGRO {Continued) . . .325 

A Cooling Discovery — Higher Education not a Failure — University 
Settlement Idea — Work for the Negro Colleges of the South — Decline 
of Interest in the Negro — The Negro's Appreciation of the White Man's 
Sympathy — Passing of the Old House Darkey — A Pharaoh Wlio Knows 
not Joseph — Restoration of the Cordial Relations Between the Races — 
The Amiability of the Negro — His Faithfulness — Two Old-time 
Darkies — Booker T. Washington. 



XXIV. THE FRIENDLY TIBETANS . . , . -347 

Unprepossessing in Appearance, but Pleasant — Kindness to Strangers — 
A Religious People — A Noble Character Developed by the Gospel, 



XXV. THE FLOWERY KINGDOM . . . . .357 

Little Known of the Real Character of the Chinese — A Persistently 
Misrepresented People — An Industrious, Quiet, Peace-loving People 
— Remarkable Reverence for Age — Regard for Learning — The "Yan- 
kees of the East " — In Commercial Integrity China Stands at the Head 
of all Other Nations — Instances of Liberality — Chinese Benevolence. 



XXVI. HOPE FOR SYRIA . . . . ., .381 

A Mountain Paradise — Kindness to Strangers — Mercy to the Poor — 
Power of the Gospel in Transforming the Syrian Heart. 



XXVII. THE REAL JEW . . . . . . .393 

The Jew of the Comic Papers — " The Most Remarkable Man of this 
World, Past or Present" — Hated, but Chai-ged with Few Faults — Prob- 
able Secret of the World's Age-long Prejudice Against the Jew — Liber- 
ality of the Jew — Patriotism — A Keeper of the Peace — Beautiful Home 
Life — Excels in Every Calling — Indestructiiiility — Glimpses of the Scat- 
tered Nation — Jews, White, Black and Brown — The Wandering Jew. 



CONTENTS. 9 

PAGE 

XXVIII. THERE ARE TURKS AND TURKS . . . .417 

A Substratum of Generosity and Nobility — Outwardly, at Least, the 
" Most Civilized and Polite People of Europe " — The Yakuts of Siberia 
— Their Reverence for the Aged — The Turkoman — His Remarkable 
Hospitality. 

XXIX. THE POLITE PERSIAN 425 

A People Who Never Waste — ^^Sociable and Polite — The Devotion of the 
Kurds to their Chief — The Generous Baluchi — The Afghans — An In- 
spiring Example of Heroism — A Touching Incident — The Armenians. 

XXX. THE KOREANS . . . . . . .430 

Their Mental Adroitness — Predominence of Chinese Influence — A 
Kindly People — Manly Politeness — Capacity for High Development — 
The Korean's Love of Nature. 

XXXI. THE CHILDREN'S PARADISE . . . . .433 

Fondness of Siamese Parents for their Children — Docility and Sw^eet- 
ness of Siamese Children — Remarkable Modesty — A Gentle, Amiable, 
Cheerful and Inoffensive People. 

XXXII. IN SPANISH AMERICA 439 

Hospitality in a Spanish-American Village — Indians of Central America 
— Indians of South America — The Courage of the Peruvians — Tlie 
Chivalry of the Chaco — The Hospitable Guianian — The Polite Arau- 
canians — The Brave Patagonians — The Fuegians. 

XXXIII. THE PORTUGUESE . . . . . .449 

Superiority of the Portuguese to the Spanish — A Humane People — Sym- 
pathy for Prisoners — Independence, Sympathy and Wit of Portuguese 
Women. 

XXXIV. IN THE SHADOW OF THE PYRAMIDS . . .451 

The Egyptian's Reverence for Parents — Where the Mother-in-Law 
Reigns Supreme — Morality Among Egyptian Women — The Harem — 
The Moors — The Berbers — The Honest Kabyles. 

XXXV. THE MARKET FOR FAIR WOMEN . . . .467 

The People of Caucasus the Most Beautiful in the World — Circassian 
and Georgian Women — The Polished Georgians — Their Respect for the 
Aged. 



10 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XXXVI. THE MAGYARS .469 

Their Remarkable Beauty — Magyar Politeness and Generosity — Unsur- 
passed Courage — Heroism of Magyar Women. 

XXXVII. THE PEARL OF THE ANTILLES . . . .475 

The Corner-stone of Cuban Character — Cuban Imagination — Happy 
Domestic Life — Freedom from Drunkenness — Stories of Cuban Heroism 
— Mrs. Sanchez — Heroic Children. 



XXXVIIL THE INDUSTRIOUS SWISS . . . . .485 

Remarkable Neatness — Intelligence — Every Home a Bee-hive of In- 
dustry — The Swiss Laborer Stands High — Care for the Poor — Swiss 
Watchmakers. 



XXXIX. THE SOUTHERN SLAVS . . . . . .49= 

The Serbs of Servia — Home Customs — Ambition for an Education — 
Piety of the Servian Peasants — Purity of their Domestic Life — The Slavs 
of Bulgaria — A Happy Art — The Montenegrins — Their Remarkable 
Humanity — The Prince of Montenegro — Montenegrin Hospitality. 

XL. THE GREEK AT HIS BEST 499 

The Secret of a not Very Flattering Reputation — Their Remarkable 
Mental y\ctivity — Greek Cheerfulness — Freedom from Drunkenness — 
A Passion for Learning — The Albanians — Their Politeness — Virtues not 
Intended to Pny. 



XLI. THE HOME-LOVING GERMAN 503 

" A Fair-haired People Who Slept Under the Stars " — Popular Notions of 
German Character — Domestic Love the Bulwark of the German Nation 
—Beautiful Home Life— Great Kindliness and Good Nature— A Deep 
Love of Nature — Conservatism of the National Character — A Story of 
German Heroism. 



XLII. OUR ENGLISH COUSINS . . . . . * 5H 

American Ideas nf the English — English Manners — Rudeness not Char- 
acteristic of the Race— Much of the Englishman's Apparent Gruffness 
the Result of his Hatred of Social Shamming— English Self-assertion- 
English Homes a Paradise of Comfort— Beautiful Home Customs — 
Devotion of English Women to their Families — The Englishman's- 
Bearing Toward Women — Manners of the English Business Woman. 



CONTENTS. 11 

PAGE 

XLIII. THE DOUREST AND TENDEREST OF MEN . . .525 

Fascination About Scotch Character — Scotch Honesty — " Magnificently 
Right," or "Awfully Wrong" — Rigidity of Sabbath Observance — Piety 
of the Highlanders — The Scot in America — The Scot's Love for the 
Land of his Birtlv — Scotch Humoc — Undying Wit — Heroism in Every, 
day Life — The Stickit Minister — Scotch Dourness. 

XLIV. THE GENEROUS HIBERNIAN . . . . .545 

The Irishman's Loyalty to his Religion — Always a Religious Being — 
Believes in Believing — Irish Amiability— Patience of the Iri^h Peasant 
— The Irishman Never Rude — The Ladies of Cork — The Gentlemen of 
Cork — The Iriah Wake — Patriotism. 

XLV. THE COURAGEOUS WELSHMAN . . . .553 

The Courage of the Celt — Caesar's Testimony— Reserve Mistaken-for 
Sullenness — Cheerful Content under Privations — Antiquity of Welsh 
Families — Claudia of Caesar's Household. 

XLVI. AMERICANS THROUGH FOREIGN EYES . . -559 

Lady Wortley's Opinion — Sympathy of Americans- — Coolness and Self- 
possession of the New Englander — Max O'Rell's Opinion of the Well- 
bred American — Not Worshipers of the Golden Calf — American Brag — 
Magnanimity in the Affairs of Practical Life — Manners in the Best 
Society — Attractive Simplicity — American Chivalry — Jonathan's Respect 
for Women — Hospitality — Patriotism — Heroism. 

APPENDIX • . 579 

INDEX ........ 601 



Illustrations. 





PAGE 


The Far Parts of the Earth, . 


Frontispiece, 


Arab Merchant, ..... 


. 24 


A Bedwy, ..... 


25 


An Arab Boy, . . . . . 


. 27 


A Typical Dragoman, .... 


29 


Unveiled Arab Woman, .... 


. 33 


Andalusian Dancer, .... 


facing 


Flower-Sellers in the Rambla (Barcelona), 


. 39 


Grirl of Saragossa, 


. . . 45 


Children of South Africa, .... 


. 53 


Livingstone's Last Journey, . . . 


63 


Noon, 


. facing 


Gypsy Woman at her Toilet, . 


facing 


A Venetian Fruitseller, .... 


. facing 


The Bird Merchant, . 


85 


Blind Musicians, ..... 


. 87 


Italian Flower-Seller, .... 


89 


On the Spanish Stairs at Rome, 


. 91 


San Remo, ..... 


93 


An Evening in Sweden, .... 


. facing 


Swedish Peasants, .... 


. ■ 101 


Norwegian Girls, ..... 


. 107 


Maori Chief, ..... 


.112 


King and Queen of Samoa, 


. 115 


Samoan Girls Making Cava, 


121 


A Lady of the Archipelago, 


. 127 


Wilhelmina, Queen of Holland, 


134 


A Rare Bit of Old Holland, . . ' . 


. 186 


Russian Girl, ..... 


facing 


Natives of Madagascar in Holiday Attire, . 


. 147 


A Festival Day, .... 


151 


In Madagascar Wilds, .... 


.155 


A Famous Belle of Japan, 


facing 




(13) 



14 



ILL USTRA TI0N8. 



A Typical Japanese Beauty, 

Japanese Ladies, . . • 

A Japanese Horseless Carriage, 

At Dinner, ..... 

Japanese Ladies at Home, 

Father Oshima, .... 

Little Mothers in Japan, . 

Leisure, ..... 

A Mexican Woman in Holiday Attire, 

Apaches Four Months After Arriving at Carlisle 

Indian Types, .... 

Kiowas, ..... 

Indian Chief of Police, . . 

Pupils from the Arapahoe School, Darlington 

A Beautiful Woman of the East, 

A Lady of Manila, 

Native Girls of Luzon, 

A Cavite Maiden, 

Eskimo Mother and Child, 

In Greenland's Icy Mountains 

Eskimo Type, 

An Eskimo of Labrador, 

A Group of Parsee Ladies, 

A High Caste Brahmin Girl, 

Burmese Woman, . 

A Burman Family, 

Ceylonese Girls, 

The Taj, 

A Hindu Lady, .... 

A Buddhist Priest and bis Pupils, 

Daughter of the Rajah, 

Princess Kapurthala, . 

A Burmese Girl of Rangoon, 

A Brahmin Performing Punjab, 

A Young Girl of India, 

A Hindu Prince, . . . 

Tamil Girl Picking Tea, . 

Commander-in-Chief of the Burmese Army, 

Booker T. Washington, 

Women of Tibet, 

Tibetan Children, . . . , 

Chinese Children Leaving School 



PAGE 

163 
167 
169 
173 
177 
179 
182 
185 
187 
208 
211 
214 
217 
221 



facing 



facing 



facinf 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



15 



Two Yellow Kids . 

Chinese Christian Preacher and Family 

A Bethlehem Group, 

Syrians, .... 

A Modern Samaritan, 

Woman of Bagdad, 

Tending Sheep, 

Woman of Bagdad, 

A Street Group in Smyrna, 

A Syrian Fruitseller, 

A Woman of Syria, 

Dress of a Bethlehem Matron, 

A Jew of Hungary, 

An Egyptian Jew, 

Whirling Dervishes of Constantinople, 

Mohammedans at Their Devotions, 

Bakhtyans (Persia), 

Women of Uruguay, . 

Peruvian Indian, 

Civilized Araucanians, 

Group of Fuegians, 

A Girl of Thebes, 

Children on the Road to Tunis 

Type of Moorish Woman, 

Egyptian Girl, 

A Moorish Beauty, 

A Youth of Hippo, 

An Egyptian Beauty, . 

Carthaginians of To-day, 

A Boy of Constantine, 

In Upper Egypt, . 

Starting Across the Desert, 

A Cuban Beauty, 

Mushroom Gatherers, 

At the Gate of the Corfu (Ionian Islands), 

Heydey of Summer, 

A Civil Marriage (Alsace), 

A Wedding Procession in the Bavarian Tyrol 

A Frisian Mat-Plaiter, . . . 

German Peasants (Austria), 

Irish Pipe Dancers, 



facing 



PAGE 

. 359 
369 

380 
. 381 

382 
. 383 

385 
. 386 

387 
. 389 

391 
. 403 

409 
. 415 

419 
. 424 

438 
. 441 

443 
. 445 



facing 



facing 



facing 



. 451 

452 
. 453 

455 
. 456 

457 
. 459 

460 
. 461 

466 
. 474 

489 
. 498 

. 505 

g 

. 507 
511 



facing 



I- 
Introductory. 

The virtues are modest — one must look for them or one 
will overlook thera. The vices are shameless — they force 
themselves upon our attention; they insist upon being seen 
and talked about. As a consequence, the daily papers, which 
are our best mirrors of life, reflect in the main the darker side 
of life, while our books of travel, which are popularly sup- 
posed to picture life as it is among the nations, are for the most 
part mirrors of the vices of nations. Of more than a thousand 
books of travel examined in the preparation of this volume 
scarcely one-fourth give fitting recognition to the virtues of the 
people at all, while most of them faithfully mirror all the vices 
in sight. 

It is not strange that one who depends chiefly upon the 
world's mirrors for one's knowledo-e of life should have a 
growing conviction that the world is going to the bad. But 
to judge an apple one must look on its fair side as well as on 
its blemishes. One has no right to judge it by its blemishes 
alone any more than by its fair side alone. So in looking at 
life we do not learn the truth except by looking upon the 
upper as well as the lower side — the quiet nooks and corners 
where virtues bloom, as well as the highways and market 
places where vices walk abroad with brazen faces. 

In presenting the bright side of humanity it is not as- 

(17) 



18 INTRODUCTORT. 

sumed that there is no dark side, or that the dark side is not 
as black as it has been painted, or that the briglit side is as 
bright as it needs to be. It is simply assumed that we have 
seen enough — for the present at least — of the vices of men, 
and that it is time for our own good and for the good of our 
fellow-men to look for awhile upon their virtues. The charity 
that is not puffed up is the charity that grows with increasing- 
knowledge. It is not what we know that makes us vain, but 
what we don't know. The knowledge of God tendeth to 
humility. The knowledge of self tendeth to humility. The 
knowledge of others tendeth to humility. The blissful feeling 
that we are the people and that wisdom and all the virtues 
will die with us is the bliss of ignorance. No man carries 
about the "holier than thou" atmosphere who has turned his 
thoughts from himself long enough to get a good look at the 
"thou." We Americans enjoy sitting on a pedestal. When 
we are persuaded to leave our perch and to come down to 
humble earth we usually come down to stay. The more we 
learn about those we have despised the less we feel like posing. 
When we find that the Filipinos can teach us a thing or two 
in the matter of .reverence for parents, that the wild Arab puts 
to shame all our boasted hospitality, that even darkest Africa 
is not without its distinguishing virtues, then we begin to 
realize the charity that vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up 
and doth not behave itself unseemly. 

" My practice," wrote Livingstone, "has always been to 
apply the remedy with all possible earnestness, but never to 
allow my mind to dwell on the dark side of men's characters. 
I have never been able to draw pictures of guilt as if that 
could awaken Christian sympath3^ The evil is there, but all 
around in this fair creation there are scenes of beauty, and to 



INTRODUGTOBT. 19 

turn from these to ponder on deeds of sin cannot contribute to 
a healthy state of the faculties. . . . Human misery and 
sin we endeavor to alleviate and cure. It may be likened to 
tli-e sickness and impurity of some of the slums of great cities. 
One contents himself with ministering to the sick and trying 
to remove the cause without remaining longer in the filth than 
is necessary for his work; another equally anxious for the 
public good stirs up every cesspool, that he may describe its 
reeking vapors, and by long contact with impurity becomes 
himself infected, sickens and dies." 

A wise Frenchman said to an English friend one day: 
" The difference between you and us is that you try to make 
life difficult. We prefer to make it easy. You go about 
critically looking out for the bad points in everything and 
everybody you meet ; we are content with their good. We like 
to be happy ; you are never quite sure that you ought not to 
be miserable. You are a very good people, you English ; but 
can you not be good in a pleasanter way?" I think we are 
beginning to see wisdom in the Frenchman's sentiment. I am 
sure that the world is caring less every day for recitals of 
crime and of vice in every form, that it is growing tired of the 
sight of blood, and that there is something of a longing for 
more fresli air and fragrant odors in our literature. We want 
our pictures of life to appeal to our love for the good, for the 
true and the beautiful ; to inspire hope and increase our faith 
in our fellow-men ; to draw out the better side of our nature; 
to make us feel that, come what may, God rules, and that right 
is going to conquer. 

"Looking at the best in others," says Dr. Trumbull, "is 
one of the surest ways of helping them to better their best. 
In speaking of a pastor who had come into a little congregation 



20 INTRODUCTORY. 

in a western town, and won, harmonized, encouraged and up- 
lifted all in that congregation, a young woman said of him, 
* He doesn't flatter you, but he has a way of turning things 
right side out.' His secret of power lay in his constant purpose 
to look at the rjght side of people and to encourage that side. 
The secret is one that is open to all of us." "The crying need 
of the nations to-day," says Capt. John Cussons, " is a fuller 
knowledge of the heathen people by the children of light." 
One reason why we are doing so little to help the needy races 
is that we feel so little respect for them or interest in them, 
and the reason we feel so little respect for them is that we have 
learned of their vices rather than of their virtues. Kespect 
for a people, confidence in their essential manhood, the belief 
that there is something good in them, and interest in their 
welfare — these are the first conditions of doing a people any 
good. 

And there is no race without its distinguishing virtues. 
" You who spend your lives at home," wrote Bayard Taylor, 
" can never know how much good there is in the world. In 
rude and refined races evil naturally i:ises to the surface, and 
one can discern the character of the stream beneath the scum. 
It is only in the realms of civilization where the outside is 
goodly to the eye, too often concealing an interior foul to the 
core." Dr. Charles S. Dennis, who has written the most com- 
prehensive review of missions that has been published, prefaces 
his view of the dark side of heathendom with a warning against 
ignoring the existence of a brighter side. "The people of the 
East," he says, " have many virtues, both individual and social, 
which lend a peculiar interest and charm to their individual and 
national character." There is much, he declares, that is beautiful 
and dignified in their social life, and he believes that the great 



INTB OB UGTOB Y. 21 

nations of the Orient, when once thoroughly purified and pos- 
sessed by the spiritual culture of Christianity, will be as re- 
fined and gracious, as noble and as true, as any other people 
which the world contains. " They have inherited and preserved 
in many instances, with singular fidelity, the best products and 
many of the most commendable customs of ancient civilization, 
and to refuse to recognize this would indicate a complacency on 
our part at once invidious, ungenerous and unjustifiable." In 
a letter to the author, the Rev. H. McCormick, of Porto Rico, 
says : " Our people need to know how much of good and of 
beauty there is in the character of the strange peoples Provi- 
dence has brought to the front door of our nation. Anything 
that will lead our people to a more generous and sympathetic 
understanding of the Spanish-American as a man in his mani- 
fold relations will be to the advantage of all concerned." And 
an American lady in China, writing in the same vein, says : 
" If there were nothing better in the mission fields than hope- 
less cases, I for one would come home and work in America, 
for I would find plenty to do ; but I find some good in every 
Chinese — woman, child or man." 

Admitting all that has been brought against the less 
favored races, the fact remains that some of the greatest counts 
in the indictment which we make against them will hold against 
society in general. In more civilized lands, as Dr. Dennis says, 
"a catalogue of social evils common to Occidental nations might 
be made which would prove a formidable rival to its less civilized 
contemporaries, though in many vital respects it would be dif- 
ferent. If we consider the elements of the environments of 
Christendom it becomes an interesting and searching question 
whether Occidental races, under similar historic conditions, 
without the inspiration of Christian ideals, would have done 



22 INTBODUGTOBT. 

better than their less fortunate brethren. It must be acknowl- 
edged also that there is an opportunity for a somber and dismal 
retort on the part of the less civilized races based on the treat- 
ment they have received at the hands of professedly Christian 
nations ; or upon the personal dealings and conduct of the un- 
worthy representatives of Christendom with whom they have 
come in contact." ' 

If this be true with regard to heathen races, what shall be 
said of the spirit of those Americans who look with condescen- 
sion upon all peoples, however highly civilized, who happen 
not to be of Anglo-Saxon blood ? 




By Hele^i Gevers. 



(24j 



ARAB MKRCHANT. 



II. 



THE HOSPITABLE ARAB. 



In the po- 
pular mind the 
Arab is distin- 
guished mainly 
for his thievish 
propensity and 
his proneness to 
deal recklessly 
with the truth. 
It is a common 
saying that if one 
trusts to the hon- 
esty of a Bedwy 
he will steal the 
very hair from 
one's head. But 
over against this 
should be placed 
the equally true 
saying that if you 
trust to his honor 
he will give his 
life to protect you 
and all that you 
have. As for his 




A BEDWY. 



[25] 



26 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

propensity for exaggeration, it should be remembered that the 
Arabic, like all other Oriental languages, abounds with the 
boldest metaphors, and that much of the Arab's exaggeration 
is, as Bayard Taylor has expressed it, "the splendid amplifica- 
tion of a fact." "Like skillful archers, in order to hit the mark 
they aim above it." Bayard Taylor, by the way, has given us 
in his "Land of the Saracens" an interesting story illustrating 
the harmlessness of this Oriental trait. 

A shaykh told him that the King of Ashantee, whom he 
had visited, had twenty-four houses full of gold, and that the 
Sultan of Houssa had seventy thousand horses always standing 
saddled before his palace, in order that he might take his choice 
when he wished to ride out. "By this," says Mr. Taylor, "he 
did not mean that the facts were precisely so, but only that the 
king was very rich and the Sultan had a great many horses. 
In order to give the shaykh an idea of the great wealth and 
power of the American nation, I was obliged to adopt the same 
plan. I told him, therefore, that our country was two years' 
journey in extent, that the treasury consisted of four thousand 
houses filled to the roof with gold, and that two hundred thou- 
sand soldiers on horseback kept Continual guard around Sultan 
Fillmore's palace. He received these tremendous statements 
with the utmost serenity and satisfaction, carefully writing them 
in his book together with the name of Sultan Fillmore, whose 
fame has, ere this, reached {he utmost regions of Timbuctoo." 

The distinguishing virtue of the Arab is his hospitality. 
Although hospitality is a virtue common to all Oriental peoples, 
it is among the Bedween that it reaches its highest perfection. 
It is not only their characteristic virtue, but, as has been said, 
it is the centre from which all other virtues radiate. The 
Arabian idea of hospitality is wider in its scope and more ex- 



THE HOSPITABLE ARAB. 



27 



acting in its obligations than the western mind can readily 
comprehend. It is said to be utterly devoid of selfish consid- 
erations, and it calls for a larger measure of self-sacrifice than 
is required by any other duty. 

Burckhardt in his travels through Palestine found many 
illustrations of this Oriental virtue. At an encampment of the 
Szowaleha Bedween the Arabs had a long and fierce dispute 
among themselves to decide who should have the honor of 
entertainino; him. In that tribe he who first sees a strane-er 
approaching, and j)r6empts . ' ' '""'' "~ '" 

him by saying : " There comes 
my guest," has the right of ■ 
entertaining him, at whatever / 
tent he may alight; and this 
custom naturally opens many 
a question of precedence in 
the nomination of the "com- 
ing man." 

Burckhardt also tells of 
his alighting on one occasion 
with his party at the tent of a 
shaykh who was dying of a 
wound he had received several days before. The party was 
received with great cordiality, without the slightest intimation 
being given of the serious condition of their host — the shaykh 
remaining during the evening in an adjoining apartment, 
stifling his groans. The family had supposed that if the 
guests were informed of their host's suffering it would keep 
them from enjoying their meal, and it was not until the 
party left the camp on the day following that they learned the 
true state of affairs. 




AN ARAB BOY. 



28 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

As an illustration of the disinterestedness of the Arab's 
hospitality, Dr. H. Clay Trumbull tells of a visit which his 
friend and associate, Professor Hilprecht, made to a shaykh in 
the Lebanon regions. Having been hospitably entertained 
over night, and supposing that the custom of receiving " bakh- 
seesh " for entertainment, which prevails along the routes of 
public travel where Oriental life has suffered by contact with 
our civilization, prevailed here also, he arranged with an at- 
tendant to hand a silver coin to the shaykh as they left the 
tent in the morning. At the first proffer of the silver the 
shaykh with a kind but decided gesture pushed back the money 
from him; but when the attendant persisted in offering it, he 
became terribly aroused. Springing from the stone on which 
he had been sitting, his terrific passion betraying itself in wild 
gestures, and drawing himself to his full height, he stood with 
'flashing eyes, while his people gathered excitedly around him. 
"Am I a dog?" he shrieked. "Do they dare to give the 
shaykh of Zeta money in return for his hospitality?" And 
with a withering glance he flung the proffered silver at the feet 
of the frightened muleteer. 

Lieutenant Lynch tells of the tenure by which a shaykh 
on the east of the Jordan holds a tract of land which he is 
privileged to cultivate, the condition being that he shall enter- 
tain all travelers who may call, with supper and barley for 
their horses. 

There is something in this Oriental law of hospitality 
which goes deeper than the mere duty of providing for those 
who are in need. To eat with an Oriental is to make a cove- 
nant of peace and friendship with him. Dr. Trumbull relates 
that when he entered Palestine by way of the South Country 
he found the principal well at Beersheba surrounded by a 




A TYPICAL DRAGOMAN. 



(29) 



THE HOSPITABLE ARAB. 31 

motley crowd of quarrelsome Bedween watering their camels. 
His cautious Moorish dragoman warned him not to venture 
among those "'wild Azazimen'" as he called them; but, not 
heeding the warning, he rushed in among them, and thereby put 
himself upon their hospitality before they had time to ward 
him off, as they were accustomed to treat strangers. As soon 
as he was within their circle he was asked why he did not make 
request for a drink of water if he wished to be received as a 
friend. He accepted their suggestion, and when he had drank 
from one of their buckets he was immediately welcomed as a 
friend. 

There is still another element in Oriental hospitality esjDec- 
ially noticeable among the Arabs, and that is the idea of 
"sanctuary," which secures to the guest protection by his host, 
even though all the personal interests of the host, as well as the 
apparent claims of justice, are against granting asylum to the 
person seeking it. " What is there," writes Volney, " more 
noble than that right of asylum so respected among all the 
tribes? A stranger, nay; even an enemy, touches the tent of a 
Bedwy, and from that instant his person becomes inviolable. 
It would be reckoned a disgraceful meanness and indelible 
shame to satisfy even a just vengeance at the expense of hospi- 
tality." The same writer cites a case of a rebel from Damas- 
cus who took refuge among the Druses in the Lebanon region, 
and who was demanded by the emeer of Damascus from the 
shaykh whose hospitality the fugitive had sought. The shaykh 
replied: "When have you known the Druses deliver up their 
guests ? Tell the emeer that as long as Talhouk shall preserve 
his beard not a hair of the head of his suppliant shall fall." 
After trying other threats, the emeer declared that he would 
cut down fifty mulberry trees a day until the shaykh sur- 



S2 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

rendered liis guest. The mulberry trees were the main support 
of the tribe, but their destruction would not induce the Druses 
to violate the right of sanctuary. When the emeer had cut 
down a thousand trees, other tribes were aroused in defence of 
the sliaykh, and the commotion became general, until the fugi- 
tive reproached himself with the trouble he was causing, and 
fled to avoid bringing his faithful friend to ruin. 

Warburton tells a remai-kable story of a sliaykh who was 
seeking the life of Elfy Bey, a deadly enemy of his friend and 
ally, Osraan. One day, while the sliaykh was absent from his 
tent, Elfy Bey entered it boldly, and hastily ate a bit of bread 
which he found there. The shaykh's wife, recognizing him, 
said: "I know you, Elfy Bey, and my husband's life perhaps 
at this moment depends upon his taking yours. Rest now and 
refresh yourself; then take the best horse you can find and fly. 
The moment you are out of our horizon, and the sun is above 
it, the tribe will be in pursuit of you." 

When this story reached the ears of Osman, he demanded 
of the old sliaykh if his wife had really saved the life of their 
deadliest foe. "Most true, praised be Allah!" rej^lied the 
shaykli, drawing himself proudly up, and presenting a jewel- 
hilted dagger to the old boy. " This weapon," he continued, 
" was your gift to me in the hour of your favor. Had I met 
Elfy Bey, it should have freed you from your enemy. Had 
my wife betrayed the hospitality of the tent, it should have 
drank her blood! Now it is yours again. If you will, you 
may use it against me." And the Arab flung it at the Marme- 
luke's feet. 

Although capable of intense bitterness towards those of a 
different faith, the Arab's prejudices do not destroy his reason. 
"I remember on one occasion," says Mr. Hay, "we had arrived 




UNVEILED ARAB ^A^OMAN 



(33) 



THE HOSPITABLE ARAB. 35 

at a door near which we were to pitch our tents when a crowd 
of Arabs surrounded us, cursing and swearing at the ' rebellers 
against God.' My friend, who Sj^oke a little Arabic, turning 
around to an elderly person, whose garb bespoke him a priest, 
said : ' Who taught you that we were disbelievers ? Hear my 
daily prayer, and judge for yourselves!' He then repeated 
tlie Lord's Prayer. All stood amazed and silent, till the priest 
exclaimed : ' May God curse me if I ever curse again those who 
hold such belief! Nay, more, that prayer shall be my prayer 
till my hour be come. I pray thee, O Nazarene, rej^eat the 
prayer, that it may be remembered and written among us in 
letters of gold.'" 

Speaking of their reputation for brigandage, a writer in 
the British Encyclopedia says: "The Bedween regard the 
plundering of caravans or travelers, whether on business or 
otherwise, simply as a supplementary measure that takes the 
place of passports or custom dues exacted elsewhere. The land 
is theirs, they say, and trespassers on it without leave must pay 
the forfeit. Hence whoever can show anything equivalent to a 
permission of entrance into their territory has, in the regular 
course of things, nothing to fear. The permission is obtained 
by securing the protection of the nearest Bedwy shaykh, who, 
for a politely-worded request and a small sum of money, will 
readily grant the pass, in the shape of one or two or more men 
of his tribe, who accompany the wayfarers as far as the next 
encampment on their road, where they hand their charge over 
to fresh guides, equally bound to afford the desired safeguard. 
In the interior of the peninsula the passport is given in writ- 
ing by one of the local town governors, and is respected by the 
Bedween of the district ; for, however impudent and unamena- 
ble to law these nomades may be on the frontiers of the impo- 



36 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

tent Ottoman government in Syria or the Hejaz, they are quiet 
and submissive enouo-h in other and Arab-2:overned reo-ions of 
the peninsula. But the rash traveler who ventures on the 
desert strip without the precautions above mentioned is likely 
enough to atone for his negligence by the loss of his luggage ; 
and should he resist, perhaps his life also." 

Kev. Dr. Henry H. Jessup, of the American Presbyterian 
Mission at Beirut, Syria, in a letter to the writer, after confirm- 
ing what has been said of the unbounded hospitality of the 
Arabs, sjjeaks in high j^raise of their love for their children. 
Nowhere, he says, are parents more devoted to their children, 
and since education has become available they are all anxious 
to give their little ones the best school ojDjoortunities. Arab 
children are very bright, attractive and lovable, and will com- 
pare favorably with the children of any other people. They 
are exceedingly apt in learning, and Dr. Jessup says there are 
many little boys and girls attending the schools of his mission 
who recite by heart whole chapters of the Bible. The Arabs 
are naturally a religious people, and a man without a religion of 
some sort would be looked upon as a strange creature. They 
believe in divinely inspired books, though they may choose the 
Koran over the Bible. 

Dr. Jessup adds some exceedingly interesting notes about 
these interesting people. " Many of their educated men," he 
says, " trained in their missionary colleges and schools are now 
filling high positions as educators, clerks, business managers, 
physicians, preachers and teachers, in all parts of Syria, in 
Egypt and North Africa. They have caught the new enter- 
prising spirit of Western civilization and are starting out in a 
new Phenician migration to the ends of the earth, seeking to 
better their condition : and at some time in the future the more 



THE HOSPITABLE ARAB. 37 

solid and reliable part of them will come back to benefit and 
elevate their country." 

The Arabs make excellent Christians. The evangelical 
churches scattered throughout Syria have many members whose 
pure and consecrated lives, Dr. Jessup says, are a living witness 
to their sincerity and faith. Dr. Jessup names several Syrian 
believers who have been an honor to the church of Christ. 
Asaad-esh Shidiak, the first martyr of Madera Syria, was stoned 
to death, and walled up in a room in the monastery of Kanno- 
bin by order of the Maronite Patriarch. Abii Mousoor, of the 
Hasbeiqa church, during the massacres of 1860, was cut in 
pieces by the Druses' battle-axes Avhile on his knees praying 
for his fellow-Christians and for their Druse enemies. 

On Dr. Jessup's visit to the United States in 1864 he 
brought a box of Syrian curiosities, the gift of a Syrian Chris- 
tian, who desired that they be sold and the proceeds be used to 
supply Testaments for the sick and wounded prisoners in our 
American war. The box was sold, and the proceeds from the 
sale of these curiosities was used in purchasing about fifteen 
hundred Testaments. 

In 1860, when the Moslems and Druses in Damascus were 
engaged in massacring the Christians and burning their houses, 
the famous Arab prince, the Emir Abdal Radix, of Algiers, 
mounted his horse, and drew his sword, and at the head of his 
faithful bodyguard of 100 Algerians charged on the infuriated 
mob who were engaged in the massacre, drove them off, and 
rescued 11,000 Christians, whom he conducted to the great 
fortress enclosure, and had them guarded and fed until they 
could be removed to Beirut. President Lincoln sent him a 
present of a pair of gold-mounted navy revolvers, and he re- 
ceived j^resents from all the crowned heads of Europe. 



38 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

I may add that in what I have said of Arabian traits I have 
had chiefly in mind the nomadic tribes of Arabia and Syria. 
These,, however, do not differ widely in their characteristic vir- 
tues from the settled Arabs who compose a large part of the 
population of Western Asia and Northern Africa. 




FLOWERSELLKRS IN THE RAMBLA (BARCELONA) 
(40) 




ANDALUSIAN DANCER, 



JJY Rafael Arroyo. 



III. 
THE STRENGTH OF SPAIN. 

Few countries have fared so badly at the hands of un- 
sympathetic travelers as Spain. George Augusta Sala in a fit 
of disgust wrote from a Spanish town: "I would not bring my 
maiden aunt, I would not bring my spinster cousin, I would 
not bring any lady, unless she were another Ida Pfeiffer or 
Lady Hester Stanhope, to the town or the inn or the room in 
which I am now dwelling." Mr. Henry Blackburn, another 
sparkling but undiscriminating writer, could see nothing 
among the Spaniards but their abominable abuse of the cigar- 
ette and their more provoking way of playing practical jokes 
upon travelers inquiring for directions. A far wiser traveler, 
M. Thieblin, in answering the criticisms of these gentlemen, 
intimates that both wrote while in a pet over some personal 
inconveniences to which they were subjected. Another writer, 
Miss Mary Eyre, a more merciless critic of Spain than either 
Sala or Blackburn, seems to have come by her opinion in a 
most natural way. According to M. Thieblin, she traveled in 
Spain with no other companion than her little dog, probably 
in one of those English traveling costumes which are such 
puzzles to continental eyes, and without any considerable 
knowledge of the Spanish language. As everyone knows, a 
Spanish lady is never to be seen alone even in a walk, and 
Miss Eyre's conduct naturally excited the gravest suspicion. 
Frequently she was followed by a batch of street boys who 

(41) 



42 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

greatly annoyed her, and sometimes she would stop and try to 
deliver them a speech, telling them she was an author and that 
she proposed to tell all the world what savages the Spaniards 
were, which, of course, caused the boys to annoy her still more. 
True to her word. Miss Eyre on her return gave vent to her 
views, spreading "the most absurd accusations against a nation 
of which it has been said that even a beggar is a gentleman if 
you know how to approach him." 

Over against a long shelf of books setting forth the loose- 
ness of Spanish morals and the horrid ways of Spanish women, 
however, may be placed the observations of a few men who have 
lived in Spain long enough to fathom the depths of Spanish 
character, and who are unanimous in the opinion that the popu- 
lar notions of Spain and of the Spaniards are almost wholly 
erroneous, if not absurd. In answer to the charge that the morals 
of the Spanish women are not very strict, the writer whom I 
have just quoted says that when one comes to really know them 
one will not only admire them, but will "actually experience 
the contagion of their virtue." At all events, he insists, there 
is no country in Europe in which one can find such pure 
enjoyment in intercourse with ladies as in Spain. Speaking 
of the lovely features of Spanish beauties, he says that their 
charms are all the more captivating because of one's conscious- 
ness that they cannot be bought. Such a thing as a young 
girl marrying for money or for any social consideration what- 
ever is almost unknown in Spain. To win her one must win 
her heart. It is said that if a young girl marries an old man 
she runs the risk of being thrown out of society, and that all 
the women in the community, even those of the humblest 
extraction, will be at pains to make her feel that they ai-e far 
purer than she. While a Spanish girl may be more or less 



THE STRENGTH OF SPAIN. 43 

fickle, like the girls of other nations, when she marries she is 
as a rule as trustful and as loving as any woman in the world, 
and if her life jjroves unhappy no one will ever know it, as 
she will never carry her complaints to a divorce court. The 
Spanish girl loves for love's sake, and never makes any in- 
quiries as to the j^ecuniary ability of her lover. 

The popular notion that every Spanish woman smokes 
has no foundation except the fact that cigars are used by the 
workingwomen of the tobacco factories and by a few ladies 
from Cuba — a fact which should have no more weight than 
anything that may be truthfully said with regard to the use 
of snuff in America. No Spanish lady, says M. Thieblin, ever 
smokes. Nor is she a wine-drinker. In most parts of Spain 
the women scarcely know the taste of wine, water being their 
only beverage. 

" To those who know Spain only from reading Spanish 
stories," says M. Thieblin,* "the love affairs in that country 
appear always as necessarily connected with serenading and 
knife struggles of the rabbles. This is greatly exaggerated. 
The serenading of one's beloved is occasionally still to be met 
with in Andalusia, where the climate and all the habits of life 
greatly encourage it, but in other parts of Spain the business 
is gone through in the usual European indoor way. As to 
knives, if they are used between two men who happen to fall 
in love with the same woman, their indiscriminate manipula- 
tion in such cases be2;ins to be resjarded as a romantic extrava- 
gance provided for in the penal code." 

M. Thieblin insists that his profound admiration for the 
Sj)anish woman does not limit itself to her appearance or 
features ; it is her kindness and tenderness of heart which is 
* Spain and the Spaniards, by M. Thieblin. Boston : Lee & Shepard. 



44 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITT. 

clearly perceptible in every act of her life, which attracts the 
traveler even more than her external attractions. One meets 
in the lower classes almost as many illustrations of the w^omanly 
character as in the higher circles. "The wife of the peasant is 
just as loving to her husband, just as careful of her children, 
and just as kind to everybody surrounding her as the wife of 
the grandee. Whether you knock at the door of an inn or an 
isolated farm, all the women of the house come to receive you, 
and there is not a thing that will be refused you. If you fall 
ill, whether it be at a hotel or a lodging-house or the residence 
of a friend, you may be perfectly sure of having such kind 
attention paid you as you could scarcely find in your own 
home. All day long the ladies, old and young, as well as all 
the servant girls of the house, will not leave you alone for a 
moment; they will surround you and enervate you through 
the minute attentions they will show you." 

In 1805 Chateaubriand wrote: "Spain separated from other 
nations presents yet a history and an original character: the 
foundation of manners may yet save her; and when the people 
of Europe are exhausted by corruption, she alone may reap- 
pear with splendor on the scene of the world, because the 
foundation of manners is still undisturbed." The habit of 
politeness is still, perhaps, the chief possession of the Spanish 
people. I do not mean a mere outward civility, but a genuine 
courtesy born of real kindness of heart for the want of which, 
as has been said, there is no compensation. It cannot be de- 
nied that "the tone of voice and those forms of address which 
in individuals are the signs of proper bringing up are to a 
nation the source and stay of their good order and well-being." 
"The Spanish," says Mr. Urquhai't, "have a dignity which 
we take for pride, and none of our so-called ease which to 




GIRL OF SARAGOSSA. 



(45) 



THE STRENGTH OF SPAIN. 47 

tliem is vulgarity." Civility and ceremony are not monopo- 
lized by any particular class. The humblest address each 
other with the same forms used by the people of the higher 
class. Spaniards never require an introduction to know each 
other on the street, and so they never pass without salutation. 
No one ever eats in the presence of others without asking them 
to join him. The head of the house treats his servant as he 
would an equal. A beggar is rarely turned away, and even a 
prince in refusing him will say, " Pardon me, brother." " To 
the honor of Spain," says Borrow, "be it spoken, that it is one 
of the few countries in Euro2:>e where jDOverty is never insulted 
nor looked on with contempt. In their social intercourse no 
people exhibit a juster feeling of what is due to the dignity of 
human nature. I have said that it is one of the few countries 
in Europe where poverty is not treated with contempt; I may 
add, where the wealthy are not blindly idolized." 

The Spaniard loves to give you his good-will. A respect- 
ful inquiry always meets a courteous answer and a hearty offer 
of assistance. A writer has said that if you ask a Spaniard 
your way he will not be content with pointing it out to you, but 
will generally accompany you. A little kindness goes a great 
way, and the worst insult is mistrust. Mr. Urquhart tells the 
story of an English merchant in Spain who, having no money 
in his pocket, gave a handful of cigars to a bpcrcrnr. Three 
years afterwards this merchant was seized near his country 
house by a band of robbers. While they were engaged in try- 
nig to fix upon his ransom, an absent comrade rode up, dis- 
mounted, and approaching the prisoner saluted him and asked 
if he did not remember having given at such a time and place 
a handful of cigars to a beggar. Then, turning to his com- 



48 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

rades, lie said: "This is my benefactor; whoever lays his hand 
on him hiys it on me." 

Another side of Spanish character is illustrated in an in- 
terview which Mr. Urquhart had with a French merchant. 
The conversation turned upon the Spanish mercantile character. 
The merchant said that there is no public credit in our sense, 
but there is real credit, for man trusts man. A great traffic 
had been carried on through the Basque provinces during the 
Continental blockade. No books were kept; the recovery of 
debts by legal process was impossible; yet was it distinguished 
by the most perfect confidence and an entire absence of failures 
and embezzlement. This statement was afterwards confirmed 
by Mr. George Jones, of Manchester, who managed the largest 
English concern in the Basque provinces during the war. He 
had no clerks; all goods were disembarked and put in ware- 
houses. He could keep no record of accounts. The mule- 
teers came themselves to get the bales, and all he could do was 
to tell them what the bales contained, and receive their own 
note of what they had taken to the amount of three hundred 
thousand pounds. Yet there was but one parcel missing. 
Several years afterward a priest brought him fifty dollars, 
which was the value of the missing bale of goods, saying, 
"Take that and ask no questions." 

Everywhere in Spain one will find domestic affection, love 
between master and servants, tenderness for the afflicted, and 
aid for the needy. It is said that the Spaniard does not woo 
his wife only, but her relatives also ; and when they fall into 
distress he supports them with a generosity "that is only out- 
done by the delicacy with which it is applied." The natural 
kindness of heart for which Spaniards are distinguished has 
many illustrations in the character of the charitable institutions 



THE STRENGTH OF SPAIN. 49 

of the country. A writer in 3Iacmillan's Magazine, speak- 
ino- of the Cadiz hospicio, says that it may be best described as 
an Enoiish workliouse stripped of its bitterness and invested 
with many privileges. It is a real rest; a real home for the 
respectable poor ; a refuge for the young women who are home- 
less and out of places ; a school and home for children, and 
an asylum for the aged of both sexes. The place is open to all 
who need assistance on their presenting at the door an order 
from the town government testifying that they are respectable. 
The aged poor come in to live and die surrounded by all the 
little comforts that old age stands in need of. If they like 
they can go out for a little time to visit their friends and return 
to their home again. On all the feast days (and their name is 
legion) their friends and relatives have free access to them, as 
well as on Sunday. Friends may bring them whatever they 
like in the shape of food or wine, or if they have money they 
can send out and buy it for themselves. 



IV. 

GLEAMS FROM DARKEST AFRICA. 

Fkom time immemorial Africa has been a synonym of 
darkness. We have heard so much of its dark side that we 
receive with suspicion any intimation that it has any otlier side. 
Yet there is a bright side even to the Dark Continent. Short- 
sighted globe-trotters who have skirted its coasts have seen 
nothing but the wildest savagery ; but Livingstone, wdio jDierced 
the heart of Africa, and at the same time reached the heart of 
the African people, while seeing much that was unspeakable, 
has written out of his experiences a chapter on human kind- 
ness that has scarcely a parallel. Almost everywhere he went, 
he tells us, the people were unceasing in their efforts to please 
him, and he was touched with the kindness of heart and con- 
sideration which they showed for him. 

Once in the good graces of an African of almost any tribe, 
and there is nothing that he is not willing to do to jDrove his 
friendship. Livingstone tells * of a chief who visited him in 
his tent, and, after closing the door so that none of his peojDle 
might see his extravagance, drew from his bosom a string of 
beads and the end of a conical shell, which is considered in the 
interior of Africa of as great value as a Lord Mayor's badge. 
" He hung it around my head and said: 'There, now, you have 
a proof of my friendship.'" Livingstone was informed that 

* Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, by David Livingstone. 
New York : Harper & Brothers. 

(50) 



GLEAMS FROM DARKEST AFRICA. 51 

the shells were so highly valued as marks of distinction that 
for two of them one might buy a slave. 

Elsewhere, s^^eaking of the constant efforts of the savages 
to show him kindness, Livingstone writes: "Our progress down 
the Barotse valley was just like this, every village gave us an 
ox, and sometimes two. The people were wonderfully kind. 
I felt and still feel most deeply grateful, and tried to benefit 
them in the only way I could, by imparting the knowledge of 
that Saviour who could comfort and supply them in the time 
of need, and my prayer is that he may send his good Spirit 
to instruct them and to lead them into his kingdom. Even 
now I earnestly long to return, and to make some recompense 
to them for their kindness in passing them on my way to the 
North. Their liberality might have been supposed to be in- 
fluenced by the hope of repayment on our return, for the white 
man's land is imagined to be the source of every ornament 
they prize most. But though we set out from Loanda with a 
considerable quantity of goods, . . . the many delays 
caused by sickness made us expend all my stock, and all the 
goods my men procured by their own labor at Loanda, and we 
returned to the Makalolo as poor as when we set out. Yet no 
distrust was shown, and my poverty did not lessen my influ- 
ence. They saw that I had been exerting myself for their 
benefit alone, and even my men remarked, 'Though we re- 
turned as poor as we went, we have not gone in vain.' " The 
writer adds, however, that although the Makalolo were so con- 
fiding to him, they are not so to every individual who visits 
them. "Much of my influence depended upon the good name 
li'iven me by the Bakwains, and that I secured only through a 
long course of tolerably good conduct. No one ever gains 
much influence in this country without purity and uprightness. 



52 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

The acts of a stranger are keenly scrutinized by both young 
and old, and seldom is a judgment pronounced, even by the 
heathen, unfair or uncharitable. I have heard women speak- 
ing in admiration of a white man because he was pure, and 
never was guilty of any secret immorality. Had he been they 
would have known it and, untutored heathen though they be, 
would have despised him in consequence." 

The politeness with which food is offered to strangers by 
most of the interior tribes of Africa deeply impresses the 
traveler. "Again and again," says Livingtone, "I have heard 
an apology made for the smallness of the present, the regret 
expressed that they had not received notice of my approach in 
time to grind more, and generally they readily accepted our 
excuse of having nothing to give in return, by saying that they 
were quite aware that there are no white men's goods in the 
interior. When I had it in my power I always gave some- 
thing really useful. To Katema, Shinte and others I gave 
presents which cost me about two pounds each, and I could 
return to them at any time without having a character for 
stinginess. How some men can offer three buttons or some 
other equally contemptible gift while they have abundance in 
their possession is to me unaccountable. They surely do not 
know, when they write it in their books, that they are declar- 
ing that they have compromised the honor of Englishmen. 
The people receive the offering with a degree of shame, and 
ladies may be seen to hand it quickly to the attendants, and 
when they retire laugh until the tears stand in their eyes, say- 
ing to those about them, 'Is that a white man? Then there are 
niggards among them, too. Some of them are born without 
hearts.' . . . When these tricks are repeated the natives 
come to the conclusion that people who show such a want of 



GLEAMS FROM DARKEST AFRICA. 55 

sense must be told their duty; they therefore let them know 
what they ought to give, and travelers then complain >vith 
being pestered with their 'shameless begging.'" 

The characteristic virtue of the Neo-ro tribes of Central 
Africa is their kindness to strangers. Among the Manganja 
tribe, who live on the banks of the Shire, a northern tributary 
of the Zambesi, kindness to strangers is a very striking na- 
tional trait. The simple people have a well understood code 
of etiquette, a ceremony for the reception and treatment of 
strangers. The moment a stranger enters one of their villages 
he is conducted to an open space in the middle of the settle- 
ment, which is used as a place of general resort, and seated on 
a mat while the chief of the village is sent for. The arrival 
of the chief is hailed by loud clapping of hands, which con- 
tinues until he and his councillors have taken their seats. 
Livingstone thus describes the scene : " Our guides then sit 
down in front of the chief and his councillors, and both parties 
lean forward and look earnestly at each other. The chief re- 
peats a word, such as, ' Ambuiata' (our father and master), or 
'Moio' (life), and all clap their hands. Another word is fol- 
lowed by two claps, and a third by still more clapping, and 
each touches the ground with both hands placed together, then 
all rise and lean forward with measured cla]^, and sit down 
again with clap, clap, clap, fainter and still fainter, until the 
last dies away or is brought to an end by a smart, loud clap 
from the chief. They keep perfect time in this species of 
court etiquette. The hand-clapping ceremony over, the chief 
man among the strangers, if an African, addresses the chief in 
rudely improvised blank verse. He narrates the style and 
quality of his companions, who they are, where they came 
from, and where they are going, and their business as far 



56 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

as he knows, and, if he does not know, what he supposes it 
to be." 

These Manganja people are of very pleasant dispositions, 
careless and full of good cheer. They are characterized by 
travelers who have visited them as a very lively race, always 
singing the j oiliest songs and, if properly humored, making 
themselves the most amusing companions. The women are 
especially good-natured, and some of them are very handsome. 
Livino'stone tells of a female chieftain who attached herself to 
his cavalcade in the early years of his explorations. Though 
a little in advance of her age in Africa, yet she may be taken 
as the type of the strong-minded female to be developed later 
in that benighted land. She would march all day ahead of 
Livingstone's party, and when the camp was formed in the 
evening she would go from hut to hut, and beg a little maize 
for the white man's supper, which she would grind and cook 
with her own hands like any African woman of lowly rank. 
She was most punctilious as to the respect and courtesies due 
her position, and if they were once infringed upon she speedily 
let her displeasure be known in a most excited manner. Care- 
ful as to etiquette, she as carefully inculcated politeness in 
others. To this description of the strong-minded chieftain of 
Bolondo Dr. Brown adds : " It may be unnecessary to say that 
her husband — Sambanza — was the meekest of men, and quite 
knew his position in the w^orld." 

The Kaffirs of Southern Africa are a cheerful, careless and 
light-hearted race. Their color is a blackish red, their hair is 
crisp inclining to curl, but the nose is not so flat, as a rule, as 
that of the Negro; and they have shown far more aptitude for 
civilization than the black man. They have good intellects 
and are keen and subtle in an argument. The Kaffir loves to 



GLEAMS FROM DARKEST AFRICA. 57 

chop words, to split hairs. " Gil Bias," says Dr. Brown, 
" never lay in wait with more zest for an unwary traveler with 
whom to enter into a logical discussion than does Bishop Colen- 
so's ' intelligent Zulu.' " The Kaffirs are not only dignified in 
bearing, but they have a high sense of honor. They are far 
from revengeful, and are slow to take affront at a trifle. As a 
rule, they are affectionate in their families, and are attached to 
their homes and also to their country. Speaking of the hos|)it- 
ality of one of the Kaffir nations, Makalolo, Livingstone says 
the people of every village treated him most liberally, present- 
ing, besides oxen, buttermilk and meal, "more than we could 
store away in our canoe. The cows in this valley are now 
yielding, as they frequently do, more milk than the people can 
use, and both men and women present butter in such quanti- 
ties that I shall be able to refresh my men as we go along. . . . 
They always make their presents gracefully. When an ox is 
given, the owner would say, 'Here is a bit of bread for you.' 
This was pleasing, for I had been accustomed to the Bechuanas 
presenting a miserable goat with the pompous exclamation, 
' Behold an ox.' The women insisted on giving me copious 
suj^plies of shrill praises or lullilooing; but although I fre- 
quently told them to modify their great 'lords' and great 
'lions' to more humble expressions, they so evidently intended 
to do me honor that I could not help being pleased with the 
good creatures' wishes for our success." 

Livingstone also relates that when he left the Makalolo 
land for the cape the natives made a garden and i^lanted corn 
for him that he misjht have food to eat when he returned. 
Another writer says that hospitality is so ingrained in the social 
economy of the Kaffirs that one of their most cogent arguments 
in favor of polygamy is that the man with one wife is unable 



58 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

to entertain strangers in the manner he ought; and more espec- 
ially is this a weighty reason when the women are the chief 
cultivators and have control over the cows and their stores. 
The Kaffir women are better treated than the women of most 
savage races, though they are regarded as inferior to the men. 
It is true that the wife is always purchased, but this is only 
regarded as an equivalent to her father for the loss of her ser- 
vices, and a girl regards it as an honor to be sold, especially if 
she brings a good price. Neither is the selling of a girl a 
degradation in the eyes of parents, while a young Kaffir would 
think himself disgraced if he accepted a wife without paying 
for her. Though of low civilization, Kaffirs know it is better 
to reason with a woman than to beat her, and they have learned 
to have recourse to moral suasion. When a man marries for 
the first time all the cows which he possesses are regarded as 
her property. "Theoretically," writes Mr. Shooter, an au- 
thority on Kaffir customs, " the husband can neither sell nor dis- 
pose of his cattle without his wife's consent. If he desires to 
take a second wife and needs any of the cattle to pay for her 
he must obtain her concurrence. This is usually secured by 
flattery or coaxing. If she complies with her husband's desires 
and furnishes cattle to purchase a new wife, she is entitled to 
the service of the newcomer and calls her ' my Avife.'" 

The Bechuanas are probably the least amiable of all the 
Kaffir tribes, and are said to be very cruel toward their rela- 
tives, and show little natural feeling of regard for their wives 
or children ; yet they are not a quarrelsome peo2)le, and are 
persevering and industrious — virtues which, as some one has 
said, go a long way in the savage's life to make up what are 
looked upon, in civilized society, as gross offences. And it 
may be added that, as cruel as Kaffirs may be, they have not 



GLEAMS FROM DARKEST AFRICA. 59 

shown a tithe of the cruelty and injustice toward their kindred 
which, from all accounts, the civilized whites have shown to 
them. Says an English writer : "We Britons are not blameless 
in this respect, and among our inglorious little wars those known 
by the name of 'the Kaffir' do not shine first on our bead-roll 
of glory." 

The Hottentots, unlike the other African natives, are not 
dark, but yellow, bearing a striking resemblance to the Chi- 
nese. The popular notion used to be that the Hottentots were 
the lowest of the human race. While their j^lace in the scale of 
intellectuality is certainly very low, their moral character is far 
better than many of the African nations. They have an in- 
exhaustible fund of good humor, and take things pleasantly and 
easily, though they are impatient of restraint and find regular 
employment irksome. 

The most harmless savasfes of Southern Africa are the 
Ovambos. The term by which they designate themselves means 
" the merry people," though it is said that it will require an 
African education to appreciate their mirth. They are humane 
to their sick and aged, and have the reputation of being abso- 
lutely honest. They are very industrious, and their herdsmen 
are well to do, possessing large droves of cattle and flocks of 
goats. Like the Chinese, they have a very high opinion of 
themselves, and a very low opinion of other people. 

Henry M. Stanley, the explorer, tells a remarkable story 
illustrating the better side of the African. In transporting 
goods over the mountains a number of robberies had been 
committed, and it was found that the last man in the whole 
party whom Stanley would have wished to accuse of theft 
was found guilty — the noble, brave, and hitherto reliable Uledi. 
True as steel in the hour of dan2;er, thinkino; nothino; of his 



60 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

life if Stanley desired him to risk it, he had yielded to the 
temptation to steal, not mere trifles, but goods upon which the 
very existence of Stanley's party might depend. Stanley had 
declared that the next man he caught stealing should be left 
in the hands of the savages as a slave forever, but he would 
almost as soon have lost his right hand as to have given up 
Uledi. He therefore called the chiefs together, and made them 
a speech in which he showed them that their lives depended 
upon putting a stop to the robberies that had become so fre- 
quent, and then asked them what should be done with Uledi, 
on whose person stolen goods had been found. 

The principal chief would not answer at first, but on being 
pressed said at last that it was very hard, seeing it was Uledi. 
Had it been anybody else he would have voted to pitch him 
into the river, but now he could only give his vote for a flogging. 
The rest of the chiefs concurred in this proposal. 

Stanley then turned to the boat's crew, of which Uledi was 
cockswain, and by whom he was dearly beloved. The watch- 
man of the boat said : "Ah, it is a hard question, master. He 
is like our elder brother ; but as the fathers of the people have 
spoken, be it so ; yet for our sakes, master, beat him only a 
little." 

Stanley next called up Zaidi, by whose side Uledi had 
clung all night in the midst of the cataract, thus saving his 
life. " Remember it is Uledi, master," said Zaidi. 

Then he called Uledi's brother. " Spare Uledi, master ; 
but if he must be flogged, give me half of it. I shall not feel it 
if it is for Uledi." 

Finally Stanley called upon the poor culprit's cousin, who 
replied in a speech which the London AthencBum said would 
stand beside that of Jeanie Dean's when pleading for her sister. 



GLEAMS FROM DARKEST AFRICA. 61 

"Will the master give his slave liberty to speak?" 

" Yes," replied Stanley. Coming before him and clasp- 
ing his feet with his hands, the poor fellow said : 

"The master is wise. All things that hajDpen he writes 
in a book. Each day there is something written. We black 
men know nothing, neither have we any memory. What we 
saw yesterday is to-day forgotten. Yet the master forgets 
nothing. Perhaps, if the master will look into his book, he 
may see something in it about Uledi ; how Uledi behaved on 
Lake Tanganika ; how he rescued Zaidi from the cataract ; how 
he has saved many men, whose names I cannot remember, from 
the river — Bill Ali, Mabruki, Kom-kusi and others ; how he 
worked harder on the canoe than any three men; how he has 
been the first to listen to your voice always ; how he has been 
the father of the boat-boys. With Uledi, master, the boat- 
boys are good and ready, without him they are nothing. Uledi 
is Shumari's brother. If Uledi is bad, Shumari is good. Uledi 
is my cousin. If, as the chiefs say, Uledi should be punished, 
Shumari says he will take half the punishment; then give 
Saywa the other half, and set Uledi free. Saywa has spoken." 

All this was spoken in a low, humble tone, while the 
pleading man's head was bowed at the explorer's feet. Unable 
to resist such an appeal, Stanley replied: 

"Very well; Uledi, by the voice of the people, is con- 
demned ; but as Shumari and Saywa have promised to take the 
punishment on themselves, Uledi is set free and Shumari and 
Saywa are pardoned." 

The moment the j)oor culprit was set free he stepped for- 
ward and said: " Master, it was not Uledi who stole — it was 
the devil which entered into his heart." 

Nearly all the natives of Africa have an amiable desire to 



62 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

please, and they often tell what they imagine will be gratifying 
rather than the uninteresting naked truth. " Let a native from 
the interior," says Livingstone,* " be questioned by a thirsty 
geographer whether the mountains around his youthful home 
are high. From a dim recollection of something of the sort, 
combined with a desire to please, the answer will be in the af ^ 
firmative, and so will it be if this subject of inquiry be gold or 
unicorns . . . English sportsmen, though first-rate shots at 
home, are notorious for the number of misses on first trying to 
shoot in Africa. Everything is on such a large scale, and 
there is such a glare of bright sunlight, that some time is re- 
quired to enable them to judge of distances. 'Is it wounded?' 
inquired a gentleman of his dark attendant, after firing at an 
antelope. 'Yes, the bullet went right into his heart.' These 
small wounds never proving fatal, he asked a friend who un- 
derstood the language to explain to the man that he preferred 
the truth in every case. 'He is my father,' replied the native, 
'and I thought he would be displeased if I told him that he 
never hit it at all.' But great as this failing is among the free, 
it is more annoying among the slaves. One Can scarcely induce 
a slave to translate anything truly, he is so intent on thinking 
of what will please." 

One may say that Livingstone spoke rather extravagantly of 
the better side of the African natives, but who can blame him? 
No man ever won the hearts of a people more completely than 
he won the hearts of the simple savages of the Dark Continent. 
And they were always ready to lay down their lives for him. 
Once when he was sick his servants carried him for sixteen 
days on a hammock suspended from poles resting on their 

* Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi, by David and Charles Living- 
stone. New York : Harper & Brothers. 




LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNEY. 



(63) 



GLEAiMS FB03I DARKEST AFRICA. 65 

heads, and when he died loving hands bore his body more 
than half-way across the continent to the sea-coast, that he 
might be laid to rest in his own land. The story of this won- 
derful funeral procession is almost without a parallel in the 
history of human kindness. As they traveled many of the 
natives began to succumb to fever, and after journeying a 
hundred miles the entire party became so ill that they were 
compelled to stop for a month's rest. Difficulties beset them 
at every step of the way. In one district the natives tried to 
prevent the passage of the funeral procession through the 
country, and they would doubtless have desecrated the body 
if the party had not taken the precaution to hide it in some 
bales of calico. After a painful journey of six months the 
party reached Zanzibar, where the body of Livingstone was 
placed in charge of the English Consul, who sent it to 
England to be buried in Westminster Abbey. 

The savage Negro in his African home is childish, fickle, 
affectionate, and easily affected by kindness or ill treatment. 
It is a mistaken notion that the Negroes are as a whole a cruel 
race. It is true that tliey are guilty of many brutalities in 
some of their customs ; but these crudities are not the mere 
gratification of revenge, but are often religious rites to propi-r 
tiate the wrath of their gods. The torture of prisoners is prac- 
tically unknown among them, though prisoners are frequently 
slaughtered in connection with their fetish rites. "The black 
man," says Sir Samuel Baker, "is a curious anomaly of good 
and bad points, nature bursting forth without any arrangement, 
like the flowers and thorns of his own wilderness. A creature 
of impulse, seldom actuated by reflection, the black man as- 
tounds by his complete obtuseness, and as suddenly confounds 
you by an unexpected exhibition of sympathy." Mr. Baker 



66 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMAXITY. 

adds that after a long experience ^^'itll African savages he 
thinks it is as absurd to condemn the Xegro as it is prepos- 
terous to compare his intellectual capacity %Yith that of the 
white man, ''It is. unfortunately, the fashion for one pai'ty to 
uphold the Negro as a superior being, while the other denies 
him the common powers of reason." 

In many parts of Africa woman does not occupy such an 
inferior position as is usually supposed. Living-stone tells of a 
member of his party who attempted to purchase a goat, and 
had nearly concluded the bargain when the wife of the mau 
who had the goat to sell cauie forward and said: "You appear 
as if you were unmarried; selling a goat without consulting 
your wife: what an insult to a woman I AVhat sort of a man 
are you?" The member of Livingstone's party urged the man, 
saying, "Let us conclude the bargain and never mind her." 
But he, being better instructed, replied : " Xo. I have raised an 
host ag-ainst myself already," and refused. "If this was a fair 
specimen of domestic life," adds Livingstone, "the women lieie 
have the same intluence that they have in Londa, farther west. 
and in many parts north of the Zambesi, where we have known 
a wife to order her husband not to sell a fowl, merely, as we 
supposed, to show us stranger's that she had the upper hand. 
We conjectured that deference was commonly shown to women 
here because, as in the AVest, the exclamation most commonly 
used was, * Oh, my mother I ' " 

lu a letter to the writer the Eev. Samuel Philip Verner. a 
missionary to Africa, says that he has never known the people 
among whom he labelled to violate hospitality, desert a friend, 
break the plighted bonds of blood-brotherhood, or leave a 
wounded comrade. He found tlie people full of natural affec- 
tion and kindness. "I have known a man," he savs, '• to divide 



GLEAMS FROM DARKEST AFRICA. 67 

a spoonful of salt among lialf a dozen friends." Mr. Verner 
gives an interesting illustration of this noble trait among tlic 
natives : 

" Bunder was my head boy, who insisted on going with me 
from the coast a thousand miles into the interior, as he said, to 
tell the people about Jesus. Our adventures together and the 
instances of his heroic fidelity would fill a volume. Once we 
were on a march across a long waterless plain. Bunder was 
leader of the caravan and, as was his right, carried only a light 
burden. When we reached the camp he was nowhere to be 
seen ; but after quite a while he came up in the darkness bearing 
a bale of cloth weighing seventy pounds on his head. Seeing 
a carrier struggling under the burden, Bunder took it from 
him and brought it the remainder of the journey himself. 
He explained that he wanted to relieve his tired 'brother.' " 

Mr. Verner says that he once left him in charge of his 
station alone for six weeks with all his goods. The countiy 
being stirred up by war in his absence. Bunder's people im- 
plored him to leave for his own safety ; but he remained faith- 
fully at his post, and Mr. Verner on returning found everything 
safe and sound. Another of his followers, a man from a can- 
nibal tribe, risked death by going sixty miles into a hostile 
tribe alone and unarmed to rescue his wife who had been 
caught and sold as a slave. Mr. Verner thinks that the Afri- 
cans in their aboriginal state are in many respects noble 
people. 

The Rev. W. T. Lumley, another missionary in Africa, 
in a letter to the writer, bears testimony to the noble traits of 
the people among whom he labored. They are known as the 
Youba people, and they are above the average tribe of the Dark 
Continent. These people are distinguished for their remark- 



il 



68 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

able perseverance. This is particularly noticeable in their re- 
ligious habits. No other people cling more tenaciously to the 
religion in which they have been brought up. " In his farm- 
ing, blacksmithing, weaving, his marketing, in fact, everything 
he does, he is dominated by the thought of the particular god 
of his allegiance, and this thought nourishes him to achieve 
everything at which he aims. When converted to Christianity 
his perseverance in his new religion is quite as noticeable." 

Some noble specimens of manhood have been brought to 
light by the power of the gospel among the savage Negroes of 
Africa. Mrs. Hepburn, the widow of the late Dr. Hepburn, the 
well-known missionary, writing of Khama, a noted Bamang- 
wato chief, says: "It is now nearly a quarter of a century 
since Khama and I became friends. We w^ere with him — my 
husband and I — through these long years in sorrow and in 
joy; through times of famine and in plenty; through miseries 
. of war and in the quietude of peace and prosperity. We have 
tasted persecution together, and together have been permitted 
to see the desert blossoming as the rose under the good hand of 
our God upon us. But more than this : for months at a time, 
while my husband was visiting Lake Ngami, have I been left 
with my children under Khama's sole protection and guardian- 
ship ; and no brother could have cared for us more faithfully 
and kindly. During these absences of the missionary I have 
often had to assist the chief in interpreting and corresponding 
for him, and advising him in any questions which might arise, 
and in all our intercourse I can most gratefully say that he was 
to me always a true Christian gentleman in w^ord and deed. No 
one now living knows of ' Khama the Good ' as I know him. 
Did they do so, they could but honor and trust him as I do fi'om 
my heart." This remarkable man recently visited England, 



GLEAMS FROM DARKEST AFRICA. 69 

where he won the respect and confidence of the best people. 
He is of an heroic build unusual in the most enlightened 
Christian lands. After his conversion to Christianity, his father 
purchased for him a second wife and ordered him to take her. 
He replied : " I refuse on account of the Word of God. Lay 
the hardest task on me with reference to hunting elephants for 
ivory, or any service you can think of as a token of my 
obedience, but I cannot take the daughter of Pelutana to wife." 



V. 

PLEASANT FRANCE. 

The popular notion of the Frenchman is that he is super- 
ficial, vain, frivolous, childish, immoral and inconstant — 
"nothing much at any time, and nothing very long, and in- 
variably in the extreme of whatever he is at." It cannot be 
denied that he is sometimes superficial, often vain, occasionally 
frivolous and childish, and not seldom immoral and inconstant; 
yet it would be easy to place over against the charge of super- 
ficiality an abundance of facts to prove that France has been 
foremost in every intellectual movement of Europe, and it may 
as truly be said that if French life has a frivolous side, it has 
also a serious aspect, though it would be foolish to represent 
the French as possessed of the loftiest ideas. As some one 
said, such conduct as that with which we associate the French- 
man is to a great extent typical of the Celt, who appears the 
moment we scrape the Romanized Gaul. He has a bright 
intellect, though he is not often capable of very profound 
effort, and his love of change is so all-pervading that "on the 
first opportunity for indulging it he is apt to 'shoot Niagara' 
without caring or tliinking what comes afterwards." "Com- 
pleteness of theory," says Dr. Brown, "is his curse; utter want 
of any capacity for halving the difference so as to arrive at a 
modus Vivendi, his bane in politics. This, rather than the 
ingratitude of which he is sometimes accused by critics of his 
own people, is what tempts a Frenchman to drift from one 

(70) 



PLEASANT FRANCE. 71 

form of government to another, the superior advantage of 
which is not apparent to more prosaic spectators." 

Whatever his infirmities, no one has yet presumed to 
doubt the Frenchman's courage, his sentiment of discipline or 
his patriotism. It is certain that no other people in the world 
have such exquisite tact and such faultless taste in art. The 
Frenchman's talent for paying compliments is without a 
parallel. Indeed, he is so anxious to be amiable and say 
pleasant things that he often runs the risk of being insincere, 
and, as has been remarked, " of sacrificing truth to originality." 
"He is so sensitive," says a writer, "to the general sentiments 
of the world that he is apt to forget the more quiet dictates of 
conscience." His very amiability is responsible for many of 
the deeds which have sometimes brought him into bad repute. 
" A few leaders among the people take a step, and the peojDle, 
without a moment's hesitation, fearing to be accounted unami- 
able and obstinate, follow their lead without regard to con- 
stancy. This, together with the Frenchman's sociability, is 
largely responsible for the mobs that so often disgrace Paris." 

Perhaps the chief characteristic of the French people is 
thrift. Whatever may be their income, a part of it must be 
saved. It is said to be the aim and end of life throughout 
France, outside of the extravagant class in cities, to save some- 
thing for investment. This is pursued to such an extent that 
it often culminates in stinginess. Lady Verney, writing of 
country life in the south of France, declares that thrift with 
the people is the end of life. They do not work to live, they 
live for the sake of working to lay by, and they begrudge 
every penny they spend, even for the necessaries of life. But 
while this may be true, it is worth remembering that the sav- 
ings which among us go into useless finery or dissipation 



72 THE BRIOHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

among the French people go to provide against a rainy day. 
The working people of France manage better perhaps than the 
same class in any other nation in the world. 

Nothing is more universally misunderstood than the place 
which woman holds in France. In no other country is woman 
more deferred to, and while her education is less perfect than 
elsewhere, she certainly makes the most of the opportunities 
which are offered her. She is rarely beautiful, but always 
pleasing, vivacious, graceful, and gifted with a lively imagina- 
tion. What we know, or rather what we do not know, about 
French morals we have learned from French novels, and the 
conduct or misconduct of a small circle of the fashionable so- 
ciety of Paris. Whatever may be said of the loose morals pre- 
vailing in this set, it is a scandalous aspersion on the French 
people to say that morality is lower among them than among 
other nations. As some one has said, this idea of the looseness 
of morals is due to the loose morals of French writers, who, 
rather than not be amusing, do not hesitate to invent. The 
way French girls are brought up renders it difficult for a ro- 
mance writer to make his story hang on a love affair between 
a young man and a young woman ; but the reading public de- 
mands this sort of thing, and so they must fabricate improprie- 
ties of the character so common on the French stage. 

The popular notion concerning the everyday life of a 
Frenchwoman of the middle class is wholly wrong. Instead 
of being always ready to attend to anything or anyone except 
her house and her family, she is really absorbed in domestic 
affairs, " and after she has seen to her domestic duties and to 
her frequent devotions, or to her embroidery, if she has any 
leisure the French matron of the middle class has no time for 
that mischief which Satan finds for idle hands to do." " Girls 



PLEASANT FRANCE. 73 

of this class are brought up so strictly that they never speak 
to a young man except in the presence of their mother or other 
elderly persons, and they are expected to be innocent of every- 
thing not connected with their religious duties and household 
affairs. The books they read are selected by their parents, and 
the mothers never weary of warning them against the Amer-. 
lean girl, who corresponds with any number of young men, and 
who goes out unattended, or accompanied by young men with 
whom she has scraped an acquaintance. Such a scandal would 
never be dreamed of in France — that is, outside of Paris. 

"In many houses," says Dr. Brown, " when a party is 
given the young men of the family are sent away until it is 
over : then the ladies will solemnly dance with each other. 
The match-making matron who delights in ' bringing young 
people together ' could have no place in such a neighborhood, 
for to invite to the same dinner-table two young people of 
opposite sexes would be considered extremely improper. 
When a young gentleman considers that the time has ar- 
rived when he should take unto himself a wife, he inquires 
among his friends, or asks his mother or some other trusted 
female relation to aid him ; or if he hears of one endowed 
with the proper maidenly virtues or a dower (which is indis- 
pensable), he dispatches an envoy to her parents or guar- 
dians requesting the honor of an alliance. The young lady is 
not consulted. Indeed, if the suitor has never seen her before 
his proposal, he is considered the more perfect gentleman, for 
in that case such a rude motive as mere love could never have 
entered into his calculation, and love is a passion which must 
be entirely eliminated from the French marriage. [Here 
comes in the canker of French society of which we have al- 
ready heard too much, but which, it must be remembered, has 



74 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

been grossly exaggerated.] The j^arents know what is best for 
the children, and this being taken as a matter of course, the 
young couple are supposed to have plenty of time in after life 
to make each other's acquaintance. Then, if the proposals are 
agreeable to the parents of the girl, the suitor is introduced, and 
after a month's subdued courtship — if the interval between the 
proposal and the wedding deserves such a title — they are mar- 
ried ; and whatever may be their own private opinion of this 
system, they are always loud in declaring that it is the best 
of all possible plans. Their parents were so brought together. 
Nor — the French drama and novel aside — do these exceedingly 
prudent marriages turn out badly, Madame being for the most 
part a good wife and mother, though naturally, the human 
heart is in France much what it is in other parts of the world* 
Perhaps the most interesting people of France are the 
Bretons of Brittainy. These simple peasant folk have pre- 
served their racial characteristics in a remarkable degree. 
Their language has nothing in common with the French, being 
of Celtic origin, and their land still holds numerous relics of 
the ancient faith of the Druid Celts in many a surviving custom. 
"Naturally conservative in their ideas," says George Willis 
Bardwell, " and non-progressive as the Bretons are, their en- 
vironments tend to keep them so, for their language, differing 
so widely from the French, and their pursuits — almost entirely 
agriculture and fishing — which at best yield but small results, 
give but little opportunity for expansion. What their fathers 
were they are and their children shall be." Mr. Bardwell adds 
that notwithstanding their lack in these things they possess 
other qualities which are not to be lightly esteemed. They are 
hard-working, uncomplaining, honest, frugal and virtuous. 
"The bit of land which their fathers tilled, the old hut, the bed, 



PLEASANT FRANCE. 75 

the clock, the furniture, which have belonged to successive gene- 
rations of one family, are the objects of affectionate care and not 
to be lightly parted with." The farmer plods on throughout 
his thi-eescore years and ten, living a life of unremitting toil, 
while the iisher is exposed to the dangers of a j)erilous coast 
and to the storms of the North Atlantic, whither he goes to 
follow his calling. 

The Bretons are nearly all devout Eoman Catholics. The 
priests are mostly of the peoj^le, men of small learning and 
attainments, but sturdy and earnest. The robes which they 
wear every day are worn and discolored by the storms encoun- 
tered on their journeys to and from remote farms and huts, 
whither they go in all weathers to carry medicine and comfort 
to the sick and the sacrament to the dying. Mr. Bard well says 
that their influence over these simple and pious folk is very 
great, and that even the rough sailors treat them with becom- 
ing deference and respect. The Breton's religion pervades all 
that he does. A prayer precedes every meal, and the knife 
describes the sign of the cross upon every piece of bread be- 
fore it is cut. When a member of the family lies ill, the en- 
tire household assemble about the sick bed and pray earnestly 
for the patient's recovery. 

Writing of some of the quaint customs of the Bretons, Mr. 
Bardwell says: 

"In his way the tailor in Brittainy is a most important 
personage. The cutting and making of clothing is indeed in- 
cluded among his professional duties, but form, it may be said, 
only an incidental part of them. It is he who bears the news 
and gossip of the neighborhood from house to house, who car- 
ries lovers' messages, and who plays the part of envoy in mar- 
riage negotiations, besides preparing the trousseau of the bride. 



76 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

The men affect to look down upon him as bein^ effeminate, yet 
they are glad at times to avail themselves of his services. He 
seldom marries and, if he has a fixed residence, is not often to 
be found there except in summer. The rest of the time he is 
traveling from house to house, busy with his scissors and 
needle. It may readily be imagined how gladly he is wel- 
comed in parts where newspapers are rare or unknown, and 
the women get small chance to gossip or exchange confidences. 
When a young Breton feels himself sufficiently affluent to afford 
a wife, he sends the tailor to the young woman whom he has 
selected as having the qualities of good looks and sufficient for- 
tune with an offer of marriage. The tailor sings his praises, 
and the girl, if there be no previous attachment, and the young 
man seems a desirable match, refers the knight of the scissors 
to her parents. If they are favorably impressed with the young 
man's qualities and possessions, a day is set when the young 
man may call on the girl and her people, and the prospective 
bridegroom is regaled with bread and wine. A time is then 
fixed when the two families may come together and arrange the 
terms of the contract. On the day appointed the parents of the 
two put on their gala dress, and the father and the mother 
of the young man repair to the home of the future bride. 
All is in readiness ; the beds are arranged and open for in- 
spection, the chests of linen likewise, and the portion of the 
bride arranged in attractive piles of coin in a conspicuous place. 
The carts and carriages are placed in the yard so that they will 
show to best advantage, and the horses are well groomed. 
Sometimes many of the objects are borrowed for the occasion. 
The object of all this exhibition of goods is to impress the visit- 
ing party with the prosperity of the girl's relatives, showing 
the proposed connection to be a desirable one, and allow the 



PLEASANT FRANCE. 77 

latter to demand a good settlement for the young man. When 
the place is fully inspected and the terms of the marriage con- 
tract agreed upon, the fathers strike hands upon the bargain 
and the matter is finally concluded. 

" Eight days before the marriage the young people separately 
invite their friends to the wedding, which takes place in the 
church after a visit to the mayor. The wedding feast is then 
begun, during the course of which the newly married pair com- 
port themselves most gravely. After the feast the dance be- 
gins, and this lasts till midnight." 



VI. 

GYPSIES. 

While the Gypsies (probably a corrupt form of " Egypt- 
ians ") are supposed by some students to be of Median origin, 
the majority of scholars agree in identifying them with the 
pariah, or outcasts, of India. At any rate, it seems quite 
certain that they are not from Egypt, though their dialect 
contains many words which at one time were supposed to be 
Egyptian in origin. In Europe they are known by various 
names, being called Gueux, or Mattois, in France ; Zieh-Gau- 
nier in Germany ; Zingari in Italy, and Gitanos in Spain, all 
of which are nicknames given them by the peasants. They 
call themselves Romni. 

While it must be admitted that the Gypsies are born 
thieves, and that they are capable of violent passions and 
almost fiendish vindictiveness, it cannot be denied that they 
have some virtues which they have developed to a remarkable 
degree. For instance, they are exceedingly courteous and they 
are always ready to forgive. It is said that they hardly know 
how to resist a show of affability or an approach to renewed 
friendship on the part of one who has offended them. They 
are secretive and full of cunning, but these are the natural 
fruits of the war which they have for ages waged against society 
and society against them. Everyone who knows anything 
of Gypsy character knows that when once a Gypsy passes 
his word he will keep it. The old Oriental idea of in- 



GYPSIES. 79 

violate honor towards the wayfarer in their tents has been 
preserved among them amid many temptations and difficulties. 
Although their children receive scai'cely any training, they are 
exceedingly kind to their parents and their parents to them. 
Parents never punish their small children, but it is said to be 
quite common for a grown-up son to meekly accept a thrashing 
from his aged father. Unscrupulous as he is regarding the 
method of obtaining his supplies, he is just as ready to 
part with what he has to a friend in worse plight than 
himself. Mr. Lealand says that he has found them more 
cheerful, polite and graceful than the lower orders of other 
races in Europe or America ; and he believes that when their 
respect and sympathy are secured they are quite as upright. 
" Like all people who are regarded as outcasts, they are very 
proud of being trusted, and under this influence will commit 
the most violent acts of honesty," They have a tact and a del- 
icacy which one would expect only in loftier spheres, and a 
love of nature which makes their wild life a pleasure to them. 
In dealing with the disreputable side of their character, it 
should be remembered that many of the lowest among them 
are descendants of vagabond whites who intermarried with 
them. The Gypsy's acts of theft are as natural to him as 
breathing. Poor and despised, and often hungry, it seems to 
him the most natural thing in the world that he should satisfy 
his appetite or needs at the expense of those who, in his eyes, are 
burdened with superfluity. He knows it is against the law of 
the land, but as for its being against a moral law, that is some- 
thin 2; concernino; which he has never been taught to reflect. 

One of the most remarkable traits of Gypsy character is the 
reverence which is universally shown for the dead. " In Eng- 
land," says Dr. Brown, " a Gypsy will often abstain from 



80 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANI2Y. 

spirits for years because a brother, now dead, was fond of 
liquor ; or abandon some pursuit by reason of the fact that the 
deceased when last in his company was engaged in this busi- 
ness or pastime. Again, a wife or child will often renounce a 
delicacy most liked by the dead husband or father. They will 
never mention the dead one's name, and if any of the survivors 
hapj)en to bear one of the names they will change it for another 
less apt to recall the loved one." Mr. Lealand tells us of a 
Gypsy who declined a cigar which he offered to him because 
in the pockets of his nephew some cigars were found after his 
death. The same man ceased using snuff after his wife's death. 
" Some men," said a Gypsy, whom Mr. Lealand quotes, 
" won't eat meat because a brother or sister who had died was 
fond of it ; some won't drink ale for five or six years ; some 
won't eat a favorite fish that a child ate ; some won't eat pota- 
toes or drink milk or eat ap^^les, and all for the dead. Some 
won't play cards or a fiddle, and some won't dance. ' No, I 
can't dance ; the last time I danced was with poor wife that 
has been dead these four years.' ' Come, brother, let's go and 
have a drink of ale.' ' No, brother, I never drank a drop of 
ale since my wife went.' ' Well, take some tobacco, brother.' 
' No, no ! I have not smoked since my wife fell in the water 
and never came out again alive.' ' Well, let's go and play at 
cock-shy ; we two will play you two for a pint of ale.' ' No, I 
never play at cock-shy ; the last time I played was with him,' 
And Lena, the wife of my nephew Job, never ate plums after 
her husband died." In Germany, where the Gypsies are 
nearer kin to the primitive conditions of the race than in Eng- 
land, respect for the dead is even more sacred. " By my 
father's head ! " is a very binding oath, but to swear by the 
dead is even more so. "Even in England," says Dr. Brown, "a 



GYPSIES. 81 

Gypsy who declares that he will do anything by his dead wife 
is j^retty sure to keep his word, though he never heard of the 
Bible." In Germany it is said that when a maiden called 
Forella died her entire nation ceased designating the trout by 
the old name Forelle. 

The Gypsies are by no means a dull or unreceptive people. 
Many of them have great natural shrewdness, though, except 
as musicians, few of them have ever attained to much celebrity. 
Dr. Gordon, a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, was 
understood to be of pure Gypsy stock, and it has been con- 
tended that Mrs. Carlyle, Lord Jeffrey and Christopher North 
were partly of that race. It has also been claimed that John 
Bunyan was of the wandering folk. 



VII. 

IN SUNNY ITALY. 

Italy is associated in the popular mind with insincerity 
and daggers. One thinks of genteel, courtly brigands and the 
four thousand murders which they are said to commit every 
year. "Italy," says an old writer, "is the prime climate of 
Compliment, which oftentimes puts such a large distance 'twixt 
the tongue and the heart that they are seldom relatives, but 
often give the lie one to another ; some will offer to kiss the 
hands which they wish to cut off, and would be content to light 
a candle to the devil so they may compass their own end. He 
is not accounted wise who openeth all the boxes of his breast 
to anyone. The Italians are for the most part of a speculative 
complexion, and he is accounted little less than a fool who is 
not melancholy once a day. They are only bountiful to their 
betters, from whom they may expect a greater benefit. To 
others the purse is closely shut when the mouth openeth widest, 
nor are you likely to get a cup of wine there unless your grapes 
are known to be in the wine-press." 

It cannot be denied that the Italians are for the most part 
criminally careless of human life. But as for their politeness 
one must agree with Thomas Bailey Aldrich that " if it is 
veneer, it is a singularly agreeable sort of veneer." Those 
who know Italy best, however, insist that the politeness of the 
Italians is something more than a mere surface polish. Dr. 
George B. Taylor, an American missionary who has spent a 

(S3) 



84 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

quarter of a century in Italy, .declares that he has found the 
same gentleness, good feeling and kindness among the people 
that he found among his own people in Virginia, Dr. Taylor 
tells of an American gentleman who spent many winters in 
Italy, who often said that when he returned home the manners 
of his own people jarred upon him; and adds: "Indeed, it is 
impossible not to note the contrast in the manners of the Ital- 
ians wdth what is often met in England and America. Their 
gentle blandness and careful regard for those conventions which 
are the oil to the machinery of social and business life are con- 
trasted with the crisp curtness and carelessness of forms which, 
by no means universal, might be more conspicuously absent in 
our enterprising land."* The same writer says that if one 
jostles, even sharply, an Italian on the street, he gives no sign, 
taking for granted that it was accidental, and if you should 
apologize he will lift his hat with a smile. On the other hand, 
if he should jostle you ever so little, he will raise his hat as 
a request for pardon. 

The " white lies " for which Italians are known are ex- 
plained by the desire universal among them to please every one 
with whom they come in contact. " Their word simpatico,'' 
says Dr. Taylor, " which is untranslatable, is fairly descriptive 
of them as a people, so genial and human are they, so readily 
entering into the feelinsjs and situations of others." This trait 
is nowhere more noticeable than in Tuscany, where the urbanity 
of the people is their most striking characteristic. The polite- 
ness of the Tuscan has been stigmatized as obsequiousness, but 
those who know him best agree that it comes from a sincere 
feeling of kindness. , The people are frank and genial, and 
always ready to accept the advances of a stranger. 

* Italy and' the Italians, by George B. Taylor, D. D. Philadelphia : Ameri- 
can Baptist Publication Society. 




THE BIRD MERCHANT (ROME). 



(S.-)) 



IN SUNNY ITALY. 



89 



Mr. W. D. Howells, in his "Venetian Life," writes in a 
delightful vein of the exuberance of manner which is so notice- 
able among the Venetians. There is a vast amount of cere- 
mony everywhere, and, as Mr. Howells says, "one hardly knows 
what to do with the numbers of compliments it is necessary to 
respond to. A Venetian, does not come to see you, he 
comes to revere you; r- 
he not only asks if 
you be well when he 
meets you, but he 
bids you remain well 
at parting, and de- 
sires you to salute 
for him all common 
friends ; he rever- 
ences you at leave- 
taking ; he will some 
times consent to in- 
commode you with 
a visit; he will re- 
lieve you of the dis- 
turbance when he 
rises to go. All 
spontaneous wishes 
which must, with us, 
take original forms, for lack of the complimentary phrase, are 
formally expressed by him — good appetite to you, when you go 
to dinner; much enjoyment, when you go to the theatre; a plea- 
sant walk, if you meet in promenade. He is your servant at 
meeting and parting ; he begs to be commanded when he has 
misunderstood you. But courtesy takes its highest flights, as I 




ITALIAN FLOWERSELLER. 



90 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

hinted, from the poorest company. Acquaintances of this 
sort, when not on the Cio ciappa footing, or that of the familiar 
thee and thou, always address each other in Lei (lordship), or 
Elo, as the Venetians have it; and their compliment-making at 
encounter and separation is endless : I salute you ! Remain 
well! Master! Mistress! (Paron! parona!) being repeated 
as long as the polite persons are within hearing."* 

Mr. Howells relates that, one day when passing through a 
crowd, an old Venetian friend of his who trod upon the dress 
of a young person before him called out: "Scusate, bella gio- 
vane! " (Pardon, beautiful girl!) "She was not so fair nor so 
young as I have seen women; but she half turned her face 
with a forgiving smile, and seemed pleased with the accident 
that had won her the amiable apology." The waiter in the 
^cafe says to the ladies for whom he places seats : '' Take this place, 
beautiful blonde;" or, "Sit here, lovely brunette," as it happens. 
I, "A Venetian who enters or leaves anyplace of public 
resort," continues Mr. How^ells, " touches his hat to the com- 
pany ; and one day at the restaurant some ladies, who had been 
dining there, said 'Complimenti! ' on going out, with a grace 
that went near to make the beefsteak tender. It is this un- 
costly gentleness of bearing which gives a winning impression 
of the whole people, whatever selfishness or real discourtesy lie 
beneath it. At home it sometimes seems that we are in such 
haste to live and be done with it we have no time to be polite. 
Or is popular politeness merely a vice of servile peoples? And 
is it altogether better to be rude? I wish it were not. If you 
are lost in his city (and you are pretty sure to be lost there 
continually), a Venetian will go with you wherever you wish. 

*By permission of and by special arrangement with the pubUshers, Hough- 
ton, Miflflin & Co., Boston. 




ON THE SPANISH STAIRS AT ROME. 



(91) 



IN SUNNY ITALY. 95 

And he will do this amiable little service out of what one may 
say old civilization has established in place of goodness of heart, 
but which is perhaps not so different from it. 

" You hear people in the streets bless each other in the 
most dramatic fashion. I once caught these parting words be- 
tween an old man and a young girl : 

" ' Giovanetta. Revered sir!' (Patron riverito!) 

"'Vacchio.' (With that peculiar backward wave and be- 
neficent wag of the hand only possible to Italians.) ' Blessed 
Child!' (Benedetta!) 

"It was in a crowd, but no one turned round at the utter- 
ance of terms which Anglo-Saxons would scarcely use in their 
most emotional moments. The old gentleman who sells boxes 
for the theatre in the Old Procuratie always gave me his bene- 
diction when I took a box." 

The incivility which meets American travelers at every 
stage in our own country is rarely found among the railway or 
hotel employees in Italy or, for that matter, anywhere in 
Europe. The men whose business it is to meet the public seem 
to be selected chiefly on account of their high breeding. Speak- 
ing of the guards on the railway carriages, Thomas Bailey Al- 
drich says that so far from being the disdainful autocrats to 
which we are accustomed in America, they are the most con- 
siderate of men. They look after one's welfare and com- 
fort " as if it were the only thing for which they were created." 
They are always glad to give one information about anything, 
and it is said that it is impossibte to weary them with questions. 
The proprietor of the hotel at which you stop treats you as an 
old friend. Mr. Aldrich adds that it is true he makes you 
pay roundly for all this, but pertinently asks if we do not pay 



96 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

roundly for food and shelter in taverns in our own land and 
get no civility whatever. 

Mr. Aldrich thinks that the politeness which characterizes 
every class may possibly be explained in part by the military 
system which requires of all men a certain time of service. 
The soldier is disciplined in the severest school of manners, and 
courtesy becomes a second nature. But Mr. Aldrich forgets 
that in the East, where this term of service is not required, the 
people are quite as polite as they are in Italy or anywhere else 
in Europe. The people of Europe are probably polite for the 
same reason that the people of the East are polite : they are 
polite at heart. 

Whatever the defects and faults of the Italians, sloth and 
idleness are not among them, unless we except the laborers in 
the extreme southern part of the country. There is not a 
soberer or steadier class of people to be found than the humble 
order of laborers in the north of Italy. Where there is idle- 
ness at all, it is encouraged by the lack of motive for work, 
the absence of decent wages and everything else that is else- 
where held out to laborers as an incentive. The consideration 
which laborers have for one another is very beautiful. The 
fisherman of Naples is known only as a rogue the world over, 
but it is not uncommon to see him and a dozen others drying 
a net when half the number would amply suffice, the object 
being to share his scanty gain with as many of his friends as 
possible. Dr. Taylor says that in the mines of Sicily and 
Sardinia, m the rice fields of Lombardy, in seed time and har- 
vest, as masons, sailors, fishermen and a hundred other crafts, 
they labor from daylight until dark, often into the night, and 
on the day of rest ; and this usually for scanty returns. The 



IJV SUJYJYY ITALY. 



97 



Italian laborers throughout the world, as a rule, surpass all 
others both in diligence and effectiveness. 

Dr. Taylor thinks that Italy with the gospel would be 
one of the best and happiest, "as it already is the fairest of 
earth's lands." 




Aug. Hageokl, 



AN EVENINO IN SWEDEN. 



.V-- ; 



VIII. 

LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 

To the optimist Scandinavia, is the land of pure delight. 
Certainly among no other primitive peoples does one who 
travels with an eye to the bright side of humanity find so 
much to delight in. While they are by no means without 
their vices, they are, according to their law, as Bayard Taylor 
has said, as true and honest and pure as the inhabitants of the 
most favored country in the world. 

The first thing that strikes a stranger who travels through 
Norway and Sweden is the remarkable honesty of the people. 
One may travel for years among them and never lose a single 
article of value. Highway robbery is almost unknown, and it 
is said that the charity boxes which are often found set up on 
the public roads are never plundered. Everywhere the doors 
remain unlocked night and day. People leave their homes 
and even shopkeepers leave their stores for hours at a time 
witn perfect safety. Even the royal residences of Stockholm 
are without fences or walls, and are unprotected either by sol- 
diers or policemen. Visitors walk in the grounds even to the 
very doors, and no one ever thinks of plucking the flowers or 
abusing the privileges of the place in any way. M. Du 
Chaillu says that there is so much freedom and there are so 
few attendants that the plain and honest people who do not un- 

(99) 



100 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

derstand etiquette often make mistakes, and, entering the 
palaces, are surprised to find themselves face to face with 
royalty. 

The same writer noticed in traveling in the northern part 
of Sweden that even the trunks remained unlocked. At Jem- 
ton a servant girl brought in a gold locket which she had found 
on the floor of the kitchen, and which he had dropped from 
his satchel the evening before while showing some curiosities 
which he had. "Why did you not keep it?" he asked, play- 
fully. 

"How then," replied the girl, bravely, "could I have 
walked erect and looked people in the face?" 

He had hardly left the station the next morning when he 
was startled by a call, and as he looked back he saw a small 
white-headed urchin running toward him, having in his hand a 
white pocket-handkerchief which M. du Chaillu had dropped 
on the road. It was a treasure which he might have coveted, 
but his boyish heart was too honest, and handing it to its owner, 
breathless, he ran back as quickly as he came. Du Chaillu 
called him to give him a reward, but the little fellow, who was 
not afraid to return what did not belong to him, feared to come 
back to get a bit of money. 

The same writer met with many similar evidences of 
honesty among the Laplanders in the far North. One morn- 
ing, after havino; Pone some miles from the farm where he had 
spent the night, he heard loud shouts, and turning saw a man 
coming towards him as fast as he could on his snow shoes. The 
honest fellow had come eight or ten miles to bring a gold watch 
and chain which Chaillu had left under his pillow. It was 
with difficulty that he could be induced to accept a small sum 
of money for his trouble, and this he did only when he was 




k 



LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 103 

made to understand that he was paid for his lawful time, and 
not because he returned what did not belong to him. 

Many travelers have noted the total unconsciousness among 
the Scandinavians of what is called in civilized circles pro- 
priety. "The very freedom of manners," says Bayard Taylor, 
" which in some countries might be called laxity of morals is 
here the evident stamp of their 23urity. Honest and virtuous, 
they take the honesty and virtue of others for granted, and it is 
often very touching to see how implicitly they trust the stranger 
guest, having no conception of the trickery and rascality of 
higher civilization. M. du Chaillu relates a beautiful story 
illustrative of the simplicity of heart for which the people of 
the far North are noted. While travelino- amono; the Finland- 
ers a young girl was brought to him to act as his guide. Her 
friends said: 

" Paulus, we bring you a girl to go to Norway with you. 
She has been there before, and can talk Norwegian which you 
can't understand, so she will be able to interpret for you." 

They all seemed happy to find somebody to help him and, 
as Chaillu says, "it never occurred to these primitive, kind- 
hearted people that I could violate the trust put in me." She 
was a pretty young girl of seventeen years. Her mother was 
dead, and her father lived a few miles from Sattajarvi and was 
very poor. Two of her sisters had settled in Norway, where 
they were married. " She seemed glad of the prospect of go- 
ing with me," wrote Chaillu, "and even willing to follow me 
to America." 

In many parts of Norway and Sweden the people are as 
remarkable for their neatness as they are for moral purity. 
The neighborhood bath is their most popular resort, and the 
humblest cottages are spotlessly clean. The homes are not only 



1J4 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

neat but orderly. Everything is in place, and in summer wild 
flowers are displayed about the rooms in profusion, M. Du 
Chaillu, to whose excellent book, " The Land of the Midnight 
Sun," * we are indebted for much of our information, gives an 
attractive picture of home life in southern Sweden : 

" Old matrons and blooming girls are spinning, weaving^ 
knitting, or doing needlework; and, bareheaded and barefooted^ 
blue-eyed and flaxen-haired children are playing around their 
humble home, their rosy cheeks and happy faces reminding 
one very forcibly that wealth is not essential to bring health 
and content. As I was going along I saw a woman put care- 
fully on a stone a piece of bread which she had been eating. 
The Swede or Norwegian never throws bread on the ground, 
but when on the road, after they have satisfied their hunger, 
they lay the remainder carefully on a spot where the passer-by, 
if hungry, may find and eat it. They think it sinful to cast 
away the gift of God. I have even seen persons when a piece 
of bread fell down pick it up and kiss it." 

While the people of the cities are by no means so virtuous 
as the primitive classes of the country, they are exceedingly 
courteous, and their manners are marked with an air of con- 
tentment that is very noticeable. In the streets acquaintances 
are continually saluting each other, the gentlemen taking ^ofl" 
their hats and bowing with remarkable grace, and always re- 
maining uncovered even when talking to the humblest women. 
Politeness and amiability belong equally to all classes, the poor 
saluting the rich and the rich the poor, and refinement of man- 
ner is noticeable even in the servant maids, who are treated 
with great consideration. 

* New York : Harper & Brothers. 



LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 105 

The peasants of Norway are manly, self-possessed and 
brave. They are of rough exterior, outwardly cold, but of the 
most kindly hearts, tenderly careful of their families and merci- 
ful to their horses. Consideration for the family horse, how- 
ever, is characteristic of Scandinavians everywhere. In the 
northwestern part of Sweden everyone gets out of his vehicle^ 
at the foot of a hill, and one often stops on a journey to divide 
his black bread with his horse or treat him to a handful of 
hay and to caress him. Colts are much petted, and often come 
into the kitchen, where they are caressed and treated to what- 
ever they may like. 

The religious feelings of the Norwegian are very profound, 
and he is, as a rule, truly pious. He is uniformly kind and 
gentle to his children, rarely quarrels, and, it is said, never 
swears even when under the influence of drink. The rights 
of hospitality are almost as sacred as they are in the East. 
The stranger is everywhere welcome, and the poorest are never 
allowed to depart without being offered something to eat. Yv'hile 
many of the people are given to drink, they are, as a rule, 
law-abiding, and rowdyism is practically unknown. The 
fishermen of Norway have excited the admiration of many 
travelers. They are sturdy, well-behaved, hardy sons of the 
sea, perhaps without an equal among the fishermen of any other 
country. They never fight or quarrel, and their reverence for 
God is developed to a remarkable degree. It is said that they 
never swear, no matter how angry they may be or how great 
the provocation. 

The Norwegian's reverence for truth is perhaps unequaled. 
In the form of oath administered to witnesses in their courts 
every person who takes an oath lifts up three fingers — the 
thumb, the forefinger, and the middle finger. The thumb sig- 



106 TEE BRIGHT SIDE OP HUMANITY. 

nifies " G®d the Father," the forefinger "God the Son," and 
the middle finger " God the Holy Ghost." The other two 
fingers are bent downward, the larger signifying the soul, the 
smaller the body, the idea being that the body is of small ac- 
count compared with the soul. The whole hand thus elevated 
typifies the one almighty and eternal God and Creator who 
made man and all things in heaven and earth. In administer- 
ing an oath, an address is delivered in a strain of awful serious- 
ness. It begins : " Whatever person is now so ungodly, cor- 
rupt and hostile to himself as to swear a false oath, or not 
to keep the oath sworn, sins in such manner as if he were to 
say, ' If I swear falsely, then may God the Father, God the 
Son, and God the Holy Ghost punish me — so that God the 
Heavenly Father, who created me and all mankind in hie 
image and his fatherly goodness, grace and mercy may not 
profit me ; but that I, as a perverse and obstinate transgressor 
and sinner, may be punished eternally in hell.' " In con- 
cluding the administrator says: "Whatsoever person swears 
falsely, it is as if he were to say, ' If I swear falsely, then 
may all that I have and own in this world be cui'sed ; cursed 
be my land, field and meadow, so that I may never en- 
joy any fruit or yield from them ; cursed be my cattle, my 
beasts, my sheep, so that after this day they may never thrive 
or benefit me ; yes, cursed may I be, and everything that I 
undertake.' O man ! reflect on this very carefully, and mark 
what a dreadfully hard and severe sentence he who swears 
falsely pronounces upon himself. A pious Christian heart 
miffht well be alarmed and tremble when a false oath involves 
such consequences ; when a perjured person takes himself away 
from God, excludes himself from all his benefactions, temporal 
and eternal, separates himself from the whole Christian com- 



LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 109 

munity, and will be lost and damned, body and soul. There- 
fore every Christian should keejD himself from false oaths and 
swearing lightly, forasmuch as his soul's welfare and salva- 
tion are dear to him. May God Almighty grant this to us 
all, through his dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." 

I have spoken of the kindness of the Scandinavian to his 
horse. It should be added that he has the same tender consid- 
eration for the 2)auper. In some joarishes the people prefer to 
have no poorhouses, but to care for paupers in their own homes. 
One writer relates that while visiting in one of these parishes, 
one day an old man entered dressed in a suit of new clothes 
and wearing a high silk hat. He was bidden to take a seat, 
and was treated with great consideration. On inquiry it was 
learned that he was a pauper. When a man is pronounced too 
old or too infirm to work, he is permitted to go and remain 
some time on every farm in the parish. Almost everywhere 
he is treated as an honored visitor, and is often given the best 
food and the best bed in the house. If a pauper is mentally 
infirm, the authovities of the parish make arrangements with 
some of the farmers to care for him, stipulating what kind of 
labor he may undertake. 

Very beautiful is the religious faith and life of the Ice- 
lander. While some travelers regard his faith as of a super- 
ficial character, it is certain that infidelity is unknown in the 
island. An Icelandic writer says that the religion of the peo- 
ple is more of an intellectual and reflective than emotional 
character, and that they are therefore to a great extent strangers 
to fanaticism. The Bible and the books used for church ser- 
vices are in every home, and the family altar is to be found 
almost everywhere. Icelanders never start on a journey with- 
out invoking a blessing. When the fishing boat is ready, the 
crew, reverently placing their hats before their faces, pray for 



110 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

success and safety, and on reaching their destination return 
thanks after the same manner. 

Baronet McKenzie has given us a touching j^icture of the 
rehgious life of the people. * 'In his domestic capacity," says Mr. 
McKenzie, " the Icelander not only performs all the duties which 
his situation requires, but while by severe labor he obtains pro- 
vision for his children, he is also careful to convey to their 
minds the better inheritance of knowledge and virtue. In 
his intercourse with those around him his character displays 
the stamp of honor and integrity, his religious duties are \)ev- 
formed with cheerfulness and j^unctuality, and this amidst the 
numerous obstacles which are afforded by the nature of the 
country and the climate in which he lives." 

The churches, which are constructed of wood and turf, are 
situated usually amid the rugged ruins of a stream of lava or 
beneath mountains covered with never-melting snow, in a soli- 
tude so dense that the mind almost sinks under it. " Here the 
Icelanders assemble to perform the duties of their religion. A 
group of male and female peasants may be seen gathered about 
their church awaiting the arrival of their 23astor, all habited in 
their best attire after the manner of the country, their children, 
with them, and the horses which bi'ought them from their respec- 
tive homes grazing quietly around the little assembly. The 
arrival of the newcomer is welcomed by every one with a kiss of 
salutation, and the pleasures of intercourse so rarely enjoyed by 
the Icelanders are happily connected with the occasion which 
summons them to the discharge of their religious duties. The 
priest makes his appearance among them as a friend : he salutes 
individually each member of his flock, and stoops down to give 
his almost parental kiss to the little ones who are to grow up 
under his pastoral charge. These offices of kindness performed, 
they all go together into the house of jDrayer." 




(112) 



MAORI CHIEF. 



IX. 

THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE SOUTH SEA. 

The Polynesians, who with the Papuans occupy the 
Oceanic group, are in many respects the most interesting 
savages in the workl They are usually of a very pleasing 
appearance, and travelers agree that among no other savages is. 
the human figure so symmetrically and beautifully developed^ 
Many of their women are beautiful, though, as a rule, like the 
women of other savage races, they do not equal the men ini 
good looks. The complexion varies from an olive to a reddish 
brown. The hair is long, black and straight, though some- 
times inclined to curl. In mental capacity they are sujDerior 
to many other savage people. They have an elaborate myth- 
ology which, as has been said, is in itself the sign of a certairt 
vigor of imagination, and some of their songs and legends are 
very beautiful. Their form of government is far removed 
from the rude systems prevalent among most primitive people. 
While other savages do not pretend to know anything of their 
pedigree, the Polynesian chiefs are very careful to preserve 
traditions concerning their ancestors, which, while doubtless 
mythical in some respects, are perhajDS, as Dr. Brown says,, 
"no more so than some in the British peerage." 

They are a very ingenious people. A well-known traveler. 
Dr. Pickering, speaking of one of the Polynesian tribes, says 
that he has never seen a people so serviceable to the traveler,, 
"for they seem able to command at all times the principal 

(113) 



114 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

conveniences of life. They are liosjoitable to strangers as well 
as to friends, and will often divide everything they have 
among their visitors, leaving themselves without food." It is 
said, however, that the stranger is not fed all the while he 
remains among them, but is given at the beginning a quantity 
of food which he can eat up all at once or save, as he prefers, 
for he will get no more, no matter how long he stays among 
them. And it should be added that their ideas of hospitality 
do not always j)revent them from eating the strangers who 
come among them. Yet, in spite of this dark blot, they are on 
the whole a good-natured, cheerful people, full of good humor 
and fond of a harmless joke. 

While the position of woman in the Oceanic group is 
inferior to that of man, she occupies a higher place in the 
.social scale than the women of most of the ]-aces of the same 
grade. She is not overworked or abused, and her lot is in 
every respect much better than that of the women of most 
savage races. The religious superstitions, however, which are 
interwoven with Polynesian life, assign her to a position quite 
isolated and unsocial. She is not allowed to eat food with the 
other sex, and her meals must be cooked at a separate fire and 
placed in a separate basket, for the food and basket used by the 
men are sacred and would be defiled by the woman using them. 
The Tahitians are accustomed to hurl imprecations at the 
women, which indicate very strikingly their opinion of the 
gentle sex. "May'st thou become a bottle to hold saltwater for 
thy mother " is one. "May'st thou be baked as food for thy 
mother " is another. Yet women can attain to positions of 
honor among nearly every Polynesian nation, and in some of 
the islands they can become chiefs. 

The Maoris, or New Zealanders, when discovered by the 




F^^^W^ 



.^fii^sm. 








, ji , , 



KING AND QUEEN OF SAMOA. 



(115) 



THE SUNNT SIDE OF THE SOUTH SEA. 117 

whites were the most enlightened savages the world has ever 
known. They lived in houses, cultivated their land, though 
as property of the tribes and not of individuals, had weapons 
and instruments of stone, cooked their food, had a system for 
the administration of justice, believed in immortality, though 
not in a supreme being, and worshipped only spiritual gods. 

The New Zealanders are "well proportioned, tall and mus- 
cular. Their brown complexions are clear, the nose straight 
and generally aquiline, the lips somewhat full, mouth large, 
eyes of good size, dark and vivacious, teeth white and even,, 
cheek-bones somewhat prominent, extremities small. Tiiough 
bearded by nature, they pluck out every vestige of whiskers, 
and replace these by tattooings. Their hair is straight and 
abundant, and receives much attention ; it is frequently light in 
color, or even reddish." The condition of woman is unusually 
liajDpy, the New Zealander granting her much authority as a 
counsellor. Even the office of chief of the tribe is open to 
her. 

Taxes are paid as voluntary offerings, and each family 
determines for itself the amount of its taxes. The oldest son 
succeeds to the rank of his father, but if another heir is needed 
it is always the youngest son. The warriors comprise the free- 
men, while slaves are obtained by capture in war. The nobility 
do not work, leaving all labor to the women or to the slaves. 

The system of slavery carries with it the right over life, 
liberty and property, and yet it is said slaves are uniformly 
well treated. The New Zealander believes in landed property, 
but he recognizes no other kind of tenure except that of the 
power to hold on to it. The laws are especially severe upon 
the crimes of murder, theft and adultery. In the two former 
cases the law of retaliation prevails, and in the third case the 



118 THE BRIGHT SIDE OP HUMANITY. 

life of the offender is forfeited to the injured husband. Death 
is regarded as always preferable to disgrace, hence suicide is 
quite common among them. 

They are remarkable for their lavish hospitality. They 
are exceedingly generous, and regard their property as held in 
common by themselves and the stranger who comes to visit 
them. The chief often gives feasts lasting weeks at a time. 
Although they are cannibals, the j^ractice is intimately con- 
nected with their religion. The philosophy of their canni- 
balism is the belief that the virtues of an enemy whom they 
have eaten become their own. The feast is always preceded 
by religious ceremonies, and neither women nor children are 
allowed to participate, the reason being that it is not thought 
necessary for them to possess the virtues of strength or fanati- 
cism. 

They are of a warlike disposition, but, as has been said, 
their fighting is more of a sport with them than a matter of 
hatred. Lord Pembroke has given some amusing anecdotes 
illustrating their passion for fighting for its own sake. Neigh- 
boring clans would often fight each other to the death just for 
the fun of the thing. "After potting after each other all day," 
he writes, "they would go out of their jjhas in the evening to 
talk over their day's sport in the most friendly manner. 'I 
nearly bagged your brother to-day.' 'Ah, but you should have 
seen how I made your dear old father-in-law skip,'" etc. "A 
distinguished friend of mine," continued Lord Pembroke, 
*once asked a Maori chief who had fought against us on the 
Waikato, why, when he had command of a certain road, he did 
not attack the ammunition and provision trains? 'Why, you 
fool,' he replied, much astonished, 'if we had stolen their 
powder and food how could they have fought us?' I have 



THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE SOUTH SEA. 119 

heard the old Archdeacon of Tauranga relate how in one of these 
petty wars he has known defenders of the ^Aa to send out to 
their adversaries to say they were short of provisions, who 
immediately sent them a supply to go on with ; how he has also 
performed service on Sunday between two belligerent phas, the 
inhabitants of each coming out to pray, meeting with the most 
perfect amity, and returning to their phas when the service 
was over to recommence hostilities on Monday morning." 

The gallantry and forbearance of the Maoris toward an 
enemy whom they personally know and respect is of a char- 
acter exceedingly rare if not unknown among civilized people. 
Pi'evious to the unsuccessful storming of a ^:>A« in the Heke 
war the Maoris fired at every one who showed himself. A 
lieutenant of the English navy who was well known among 
the natives started towards \he pha to reconnoitre. They began 
firing upon him, but, unmindful of their shots, he walked 
straight on. The moment they discovered that it was he they 
ceased firing and called to him to go back, declaring that they 
did not wish to hit him. He paid them no attention, but 
leisurely made his examinations, and then walked back without 
further molestation. 

An educated Maori, in a book on New Zealand, declares 
that he had met among the natives men who would do credit to 
any nation; men on whom nature had plainly stamped the 
mark of "nobility," of the ii nest bodily form, quick and intel- 
ligent in mind, j)olite and brave and capable of the most self- 
sacrificing acts for the good of others; patient, forbearing and 
affectionate in their families; in a word, gentlemen. Anthony 
Troll ope says that the Maoris are for the most part honest and 
good-natured, truthful and brave, and they have a great respect 
for themselves and others. 



120 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

I have spoken of tlie New Zealanders more as they were 
than as they are to-day. The introduction of Christianity 
among them has, of course, wrought great changes. They now 
live in villages, dress in European clothing, own flocks and 
herds, cultivate their land, go to church and keep the Sabbath. 

The Malay Archipelago, which includes all the islands 
lying north and northwest of Australia, is in many respects one 
of the most remarkable districts of the earth. " It not only 
teems with animal life," says Mr. J. W. Buel in his " Story of 
Man," " but nowhere else does nature revel in such o-oro-eous 
hues and enrapturing beauty. Flowers bejewel the prolific soil, , 
not only in lowly beds carpeting the earth, but they also ascend 
trailing vines and gather in clusters of richest coloring to be- 
deck the trees. Insects flash like prismatic fires from flower 
to flower and tree to tree, their irridescent hues reflecting the 
lambent sunlight like a million of diamonds. Here alone are 
the birds of paradise, those gorgeous plumaged warblers whose 
coats seem fresh with the glory of heaven or a thousand rain- 
bows. On every side the eye is charmed with scenes of na- 
ture more delectable than a shifting kaleidoscope ; in short, it 
is a region of pure delight so far as the sight can measure it, 
but yet not wholly free from lurking dangers which seem to be 
added by beneficent design, in order that the eye might not 
weary by gazing always on the beautiful." 

The inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago are in stature 
below the Caucasian. Their color is a reddish brown, with 
something of an olive tinge, and their hair is straight and of 
coarse texture, without wave or curl. Although well propor- 
tioned, they are by no means a handsome race. The Malays 
are known to us mainly for their cruelty as pirates. Certainly 
they are the scourge of the Indian seas, but their cruelty has 



THE 8UNNT SIDE OF THE SOUTH SEA. 123 

often been exaggerated and they are not without noble traits. 
They are^ reserved, impassive, and wholly undemonstrative. 
They are never betrayed into any expression of surprise. The 
women and children are so timid that they scream at the sight 
of a white face. Their most noticeable characteristic is their 
almost universal silence. They talk little and sing less, and 
their countenances show no sign of emotion. When in com- 
pany in a canoe they chant a plaintive, monotonous sound, 
which is about their only expression of emotion, if indeed it is 
emotion. In everyday life, says Dr. Brown, he is as impassive 
as the typical Scot. " He has little, if any, appreciation of 
humor, and does not understand a practical jest. To all breaches 
of etiquette he is very sensitive, and equally jealous of any in- 
terference with his own or anyone else's liberty. To such an 
extent does he carry this idea that a Malay servant will hesi- 
tate to awaken another, even his own master, though told to 
do so. The higher classes are exceedingly polite, possessing 
all the repose and quiet dignity of the best bred Europeans." 

Probably the best of the Malays in point of moral char- 
acter are the Dyaks who inhabit the island of Borneo. They 
are simple and honest, more lively and talkative and less secre- 
tive and suspicious than the other Malays, and lying is almost 
unknown among them. In their habits they form a striking 
contrast to the other Malay nations. The only serious blot on 
their moral character is the horrible custom of head-hunting, 
which Mr. Wallace says ought no more to be looked upon as 
indicating a bad character in the people as a whole, than the 
custom of the slave-trade a hundred years ago implied a want 
of general morality in all who took part in it. "Head-hunt- 
ing," says Dr. Brown, " is a custom originating in the petty 
wars of villages, and not in the cruel character of the people, 



124 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

as lias not infrequently been declared." It may be added that 
many of the crimes attributed to the Malay are committed by 
the aboriginal races that remain in the islands. For instance, 
the aboriginal peojjle of Sumatra not only eat their prisoners 
and condemned criminals, but their cannibalistic propensities 
are often exercised upon their relatives also. And yet there is 
a bright side even to this unspeakable crime, for the people 
eat their aged and infirm not so much from a desire to gratify 
a depraved appetite as to fulfil a religious ceremony, and to 
fulfil the wishes of the aged whom they hold in great reverence. 
"When a man became infirm and weary of the world," says a 
writer, "he was said to be in the habit of inviting his own 
children to eat him — especially when salt and limes were at the 
. cheapest. The old fellow then ascended a tree, and round it 
his friends and offsjoring assembled, and as they shook the tree, 
joined in a funeral dirge, the import of which was 'The season 
is come, the fruit is ripe and it must descend.' The victim 
descended, and those nearest and dearest to him deprived him 
of life and devoured his remains in a solemn banquet." 

The Dyaks are more industrious than other Malays, and 
quite as intelligent. Theft and robbery are wholly unknown 
among them. They are perfectly truthful, and travelers assert 
that if one fails to get the whole truth, one at any rate gets 
nothing but the truth. They exercise neighborly charity towards 
each other and live in the most perfect peace and harmony. 
They are fond of their children, and treat their wives with the 
greatest respect, consulting them in regard to their course of 
action. 

It is claimed that the Tahitians of the Society Islands 
represent the highest civilization achieved by any people not 
possessing tools of metal. Stone, wood, bone and shell have ■ 



THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE SOUTH SEA. 125 

to serve them for materials, and Sir John Lubbock relates that 
the first nails introduced into Tahiti were planted by the na- 
tives under the impression that they were shoots of a new 
species of lignum vit<B. Their spades or hoes are about five 
feet long, narrow, pointed and with sharp edges. They are 
very clever in the manufacture of ropes, twine and netting, 
and in addition to catching fish by means of the mother-of- 
pearl hook and the seine, have the African fashion of intoxi- 
cating fish by the use of certain leaves and fruits. In the 
making of mats and wicker-work they are skilful and tasteful, 
but they especially excel as cloth weavers, their product rival- 
ing the finest broadcloth. They are remarkable for their great 
amiability of disposition and extraordinary good humor. One 
cannot help being struck by the number of laughing faces seen 
everywhere in the island. They are always in good spirits 
-and ready to be on the best of terms with everybody, though 
their smiles often seem to be without cause. 

The Fijians, while sometimes fickle in their attachments, 
are loyal as servants and, as a rule, faithful as friends. They 
are strong in their affections, full of tact, abounding in re- 
sources, j^leasant in manner, diplomatic and uniformly polite. 
They are remarkably successful as students of human charac- 
ter, keen in all their senses, and exceedingly clever in the vari- 
ous arts and industries. 

Nowhere outside of the most enlightened nations is there 
to be found such respect for woman as exists among the Ton- 
gans of the Friendly Islands. The Tongan considers woman's 
inferior muscular strength as of greater reason why he should 
not overtax it, while at the same time he appreciates her dis- 
tinctive traits and shares with her his pleasures as well as his 
troubles. The Tongan wife is neither a slave nor a drudge, 



126 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

but the favorite companion of her husband and welcome to full 
participation in all his joy. 

The Tongans regard no necessary labor as menial. They 
cultivate the land, build boats, weave mats and baskets, and 
manufacture their weapons. Their canoes are said to be 
triumphs of naval architecture. Idleness is unknown among 
them. 

I have spoken of the Tongan of yesterday rather than of 
to-day, for he is now a Christian — an imperfect Christian indeed, 
yet a great improvement over the old heathen. 

Of all the races that have been discovered in the South 
Pacific the Samoans are the most hospitable, the most peaceable, 
the most loyal to their promises, and the most courteous. They 
always address even their nearest neighbors by titled courtesy, 
and usually by a title higher than they have a right to. "The 
smallest shop-people in Germany expect to be addressed as Mr. 
Court Councillor, though everybody knows that the court never 
troubles him for his counsel. A Samoan, if he does not know the 
title of the stranger whom he is addressing will, as a safe course, 
style him 'chief.'" The Samoans are in the main honest, 
cleanly, graceful, and so polished in manners that etiquette 
among them seems not a mere ornament but an essential of 
life. 

They are the gentlest of all the South Sea Islanders. Dr. 
Francis E. Clark says he did not see a single malignant face 
during his stay at Apia. Nearly all Samoans are now Chris- 
tians. In reply to the common sneer that they ai'e only Chris- 
tians in name, Dr. Clark says: "If we may judge them by their 
fruits, their Christianity is not so nominal as that of most of the 
people who live in New York, Chicago, Boston and San Fran- 
cisco. If our steamer had entered the harbor on Sundav, not 




A LADY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 



(127) 



THE SUNNT SIDE OF THE SOUTH SEA. 129 

a single canoe or native would have come out to v\relcome us. 
Not a cocoanut or a bunch of bananas would have been offered 
for sale. All the canoes would have been hauled up on the 
beach high and dry, and at church time every man, woman 
and child in the place, barring the sick, would have been seen 
wending their way to church. Not such a nominal religion is 
that which thus remembers the Sabbath day to keep it holy. If 
we should enter in one of these native huts at breakfast-time, 
we should see all the heads reverently bowed while the divine 
blessing was asked, and afterwards all the family would come 
together for morning prayers. If we should live among them 
we should find them honest, gentle, jDcaceable, kind-hearted, 
affectionate neighbors. Not merely nominal Christian graces 
these." 

Nearly all Polynesians are fond of their children, though, 
as one writer whimsically remarks, some of them are not inim- 
ical to their neighbors' offspring as articles of diet. Perhaps 
the most remarkable virtue found among a savage people is the 
modesty which prevails among the Polynesians. The Tongans 
are said to be exceedingly fastidious in this respect. 

The nearest neighbors of the Polynesians are the Papuans, 
who inhabit the Melanesian Archipelago, from the Fiji west- 
ward to the Aroe Islands, including New Guinea or Papua. 
They are often called the Oceanic Negroes, but this term is 
misleading, as the likeness is only superficial. The Papuans' 
hair is in some respects not unlike that of the Hottentots, but 
it grows longer and thicker. The chief similarity is in their 
tendency to thick lips and their black skin, though the shades 
of the Negro and Papuan races are different. Although the 
Papuan is sometimes confused with the Polynesian, their char- 
acter is widely different. Indeed, it would be difficult to find 



130- THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

two other races living so near eacli other that differ in so many 
particulars. The Polynesians are taciturn and reserved; the 
Papuans are impulsive and demonstrative both in speech and 
action. Mr. Wallace in his "Malay ArchijDelago " illustrates 
this phase of PajDuan character by an account of a visit 
which a band of them made on board his vessel. "They came 
up singing and shouting, dipping their paddles deejD in the 
water, and throwing up clouds of spray. As they approached 
nearer they stood up in their canoes, and increased their noise 
and gesticulations; and in coming alongside, without asking 
leave, and without a moment's liesitation, the greater part of 
them scrambled up on deck, just as if they were come to take 
possession of a captured vessel. Then commenced a scene of 
indescribable confusion. These forty black, naked, mop-headed 
savages seemed intoxicated with joy and excitement. ■ Not one 
of them could remain still for a moment. Every individual of 
our crew was in turn surrounded and examined, asked for 
tobacco or arrack, grinned at and deserted for another. All 
talked at once, and our captain was regularly mobbed by the 
chief men, who wanted to be employed to tow us in, and who 
begged vociferously to be paid in advance. A few presents of 
tobacco made their eyes glisten; they would express their satis- 
faction by grins and shouts, by rolling on deck, or a headlong 
leap overboard. Schoolboys on an unexpected holiday. Irish- 
men at a fair, or midshipmen on shore, would give but a faint 
idea of the exuberant animal enjoyment of these people." 

One day while in the forest Mr. Wallace noticed an old 
Papuan watching him catching an insect and stowing it safely 
away. "He stood very quietly until I had pinned and put it 
away in my collecting-box, when he could contain himself no 



THE SUNNT SIDE OF THE SOUTH SEA. 131 

longer, but bent almost double and enjoyed a hearty roar of 
laughter." 

The Papuans are remarkable for their honesty. Alfred 
Kussel Wallace, the English naturalist, relates an incident 
illustrative of this trait. "Before the end of September," he 
says, "it became absolutely necessary for me to return in order 
to make our homeward voyage before the end of the east mon- 
soon. Most of the men who had taken payment from me had 
brought the birds they had agreed for. One poor fellow had been 
so unfortunate as not to get one, and he very honestly brought 
back the axe he had received in advance; another who had 
agreed for six brought me the fifth two days before I was to 
start and went off immediately to the forest to get the other. 
He did not return, however, and we loaded our boat and were 
just on the point of starting when he came running down after 
us holding up a bird which he handed me, saying with great 
satisfaction, ' Now I owe you nothing.' These were remarkable 
and quite unexpected instances of honesty among savages, where 
it would have been very easy for them to have been dishonest 
without fear of detection or punishment." 

Closely allied to the Papuans and usually regarded as be- 
longing to the same race are the Australians. The aborigines 
of Australia are almost as strange as the animal and vegetable 
products of the country. They are black, though not of the 
Negro type; their hair is long and disposed to curl, though not 
woolly, and they take delight in profuse beards and mustaches. 
On the whole they are a finely made, muscular race, of the 
average American height. 

The character of the Australian is regarded as the worst 
of any of the Papuan races. They are said to be acute thieves, 
treacherous in the extreme, passionate and cruel. But it is ad- 



132 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HU3IANITT. 

mitted that they have greatly degenerated since they came in 
contact with the white man. Treacherous attacks made by 
white settlers upon the solitary hut in the bush have not served 
to improve them. Their lot before the whites came among 
them was not an unhappy one, especially in the coast district, 
where game is ^^lentiful. It is said that their moral character 
would then have compared not unfavorably with that of more 
civilized nations. Rude as they were they were very punctilious 
in the courtesies which they extended and in the forms which 
they required of others. Their marriage laws were very strict, 
and no intermarriage was permitted among them. Although 
polygamous, they were as a rule virtuous. " Honest to each 
other, iDilfering was not one of their vices." It has become 
evident in recent years that a great deal that has been said of 
Australian vices has no better foundation than the unsympa- 
thetic yarns of the old settlers, who are not, to say the least, the 
most acceptable witnesses. 

Of the Filipinos and the Hawaiians I shall speak else- 
where. 




WILHELMINA, QUEEN OF HOLLAND. 



(131) 



X. 

THE TIDIEST NATION. 

"Holland," writes Le Sage, " would be a good country to live 
in if you could only change the four elements and the people." 
Many similar sarcasms might be quoted to show how an envious 
world has conspired to make merry over one of the noblest 
races of Europe. On the other hand, Voltaire, on returning 
from Holland, said that in its chief cities he found neither an 
idle man, nor a poor man, nor a dissipated man, nor an inso- 
lent man ; but that everywhere he had seen labor and modesty. 
Louis Napoleon said that in no people of Europe were good 
sense and the sentiments of reason and justice innate as in the 
Dutch. Descartes declared that in no country did one enjoy 
greater liberty than in Holland, while Charles V. insisted that 
'Uhey were the best of subjects, but the worst of slaves." 
Taken all together, the Hollanders constitute one of the most 
interesting races 'of Europe. As has been said, their marvel- 
ous perseverance in reclaiming their country from the rivers 
and the sea, as well as their energy in keeping what they have 
obtained, gave them a right to an honest pride in their country 
which has been characterized as "great in its smallness." Al- 
though cold to strangers, their manners are not unpolished, and 
when one has overcome their taciturnity and found his way 
into their homes one finds them exceedingly amiable and kind. 
■ They are the most industrious people on earth. Every- 
where one goes, in city or in country, one is surrounded by 

o ° (135) 



136 



THE BBIOHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



evidences of their energy and patience. The people live in 
comfort and there is a well-to-do air about every community. 
The Dutch are devoted to their homes, and they adorn their 
houses and children with every comfort. Farmers' houses are 
well furnished, and the homes in the cities are often luxurious. 
"The Dutch," says a writer, "understand the art of making 
money and keeping it, and verily know the most important 




A RARE BIT OF OLD HOLLAND. 



secret of getting the most out of their wealth. The well-to-do 
live well, the middle class comfortably, the poor as they can, 
though grinding poverty is rarer among the Dutch than any- 
where else." They love to work. They excel in many useful 
arts and they are always advancing, though by slow degrees. 
They acquire gradually, "but they never lose what they have 
gained." If avarice is not unknown among them, it should not 
be forgotten that they are the most beneficent people in Europe. 



THE TIDIEST NATION. 137 

And their beneficence is of the purest type. It does not 
receive its impulse from the government, but is spontaneous. 
It is a beneficence which has founded innumerable schools and 
libraries, and which provides every poor person with shelter 
and work for every laborer. All writers who have visited 
Holland agree that perhaps there is no country in Europe in 
which so much money is given by the wealthy to the needy 
class. 

The charitable institutions of Holland are as varied as the 
needs of mankind. Said Louis XIV. to Charles II. of Eng- 
land : " Have no fear for Amsterdam. I have the firm hope 
that Providence will save her if it were only in consideration 
of her charity towards the poor." There are now over one 
hundred charitable institutions in Amsterdam alone. Nearly 
all of these are supported by voluntary contributions, and 
they are so well conducted that they have become the admira- 
tion of the world. It is claimed that there are more societies 
for the sick, the aged, blind, indigent, lunatic, widows, orphans 
and foundlings in Amsterdam than in any other city in the 
world. 

The distinguishing characteristic of the Dutch is their 
passion for cleanliness. It has been said that they clean every- 
thing they have once every day and three times on Saturday. 
At any rate, it is certain that there is not to be found in one of 
their houses at any time a spot or stain or a particle of dust. 
De Amicis declares that a cobweb in a Dutch parlor would be 
as strange an anomaly as a coach-and-four in Venice, and he 
insists that the streets of Haarlem are so clean that "one hesi- 
tates to let fall the ashes of one's cigar." The same writer 
says that every day in every house the windows are polished, 
the finger-marks are removed from painted wood, every tar- 



138 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

nished vessel is made bright, and a careful search is made for 
any wandering hair or bit of dust. In addition to this there 
is a great Saturday cleaning, when all the steps and doorways 
and windows and walls are scrubbed and brushed or burnished 
and the exterior of the building deluged with water, " the cere- 
mony of the day ending with a thorough cleansing of all 
brushes, brooms, cloths and other instruments which have been 
used in the cleaning. No rubbish of any kind is ever seen on 
the streets, and there are no bad odors except those which are 
inevitably present where there is much shipping." 

In speaking of a visit which he made to a home in Delft, 
De Amicis says : " We went down to see the kitchen ; it was 
splendid. When I returned to Italy and gave a description of 
it to my mother and the servant, who piques herself on her 
neatness, they were annihilated. The walls were as white as 
untouched snow; the saucepans reflected objects like mirrors; 
the mantlepiece was ornamented by a species of muslin curtain 
like the canopy of a bed, without a trace of smoke; the fire- 
place beneath was covered with china tiles that looked as bright 
as if no fires had ever been lighted there; the shovel, tongs 
and poker and the chains and the hooks seemed made of pol- 
ished steel. A lady in a ball dress might have gone into every 
hole and corner of that kitchen and come forth without a smirch 
upon her whiteness. The maidservant, meanwhile, was clean- 
ing up, and her master commented thus : ' To have an idea of 
what cleanliness is with us, you should watch one of these 
women for an hour. Here a house is soaped, and sponged and 
rubbed like a person. It is not cleaning, it is making a toilet. 
She blows in the cracks between the bricks, pokes in the corners 
with finger and pin, makes a minute supervision, enough to 
fatigue the eye as well as the arm. It is truly a national pas- 



THE TIDIEST NATION. 139 

sion. These girls, who are in general phlegmatic enough, be- 
come quite frantic on cleaning days. We are not masters in 
our own houses then. They invade the chambers and turn 
everything upside down; they are real cleaning Bacchantes; 
they excite themselves in washing and sweeping.' 'And this is 
not,' he added, ' the cleanest part of Holland ; the excess is to 
be found in the northern provinces.'"* 

* Holland and its People, by Edmondo De Amicis. New York : G. P. 
Putnam's Sons. 




By Kakl Venig. 



RUSSIAN GIRL.. 



XI. 

UNDER THE CZAR. 

A NOTED traveler, Captain Youngliusband, used to say 
that it was always a pleasure to meet a Russian. "He is in- 
variably so frank and hearty." "Take him all in all," wrote 
Mr. Wahl, " the Russian is a good, simple-minded person of 
quiet dispostion, trusting in God, chance and the Czar, of the 
most placid resignation, no matter what fate Providence may 
have in store for him." 

This docility of disposition is perhaps the distinguishing 
trait of Russian character. Of this disposition nothing is more 
conclusive proof than the amiable temper with which they 
submit to a patriarchal despotism. Among no other people 
is there a more general kindliness of spirit, and as Captain 
Youngliusband says, no one would ever accuse them of noti 
being warm-hearted. No people are more humane than the 
northern Slavs, and their hospitality is all that one could 
desire. Strangers are invariably received with the most sincere 
demonstration of pleasure, and are henceforth treated as mem- 
bers of the family circle. The beggar, the benighted traveler, 
the unfortunate dragging his weary steps toward Siberia, all are 
equally made free of what the household has to offer. 

Mr. Lansdell says that when the Russian peasant is sober 
he displays many virtues, some of which are rare in more 
advanced countries. He attributes their intemperance to the 
large number of their fast days, at the close of which they 

(141) 



142 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

break out in excesses. But he does not endorse the opinion 
sometimes expressed, that they are as a people more intem- 
perate than other Europeans. They are quiet, peaceable, 
cheerful, always ready for a laugh, and altogether a Very clever 
folk. It is said that the fanatical spirit of the Nihilists belongs 
to a very small minority of the race. Most of them have no 
quarrel at all with the government and are perfectly loyal. 

The Russian is without vindictiveness. Although often 
brusque to rudeness he is good-natured, and while keenly alive 
to injustice, he will often tolerate an act of severity. "Take 
him all in all," says Dr. Brown, "he is a singularly good fellow 
and easily managed by those who understand him." Dr. 
Brown adds that he is a child with a child's faults and many 
of a child's virtues. If a servant he may pilfer, but he is 
faithful far beyond the average hireling. " He never tires in 
your service," says Seebohm. "If he has worked for you all 
day, he will work for you all night if required. Nothing is 
too difficult for him to attempt. He is your right-hand man 
in every case of need. He can mend your carriage or your 
harness, or repair your clothes or your boots. Give him a 
good axe, and there is no joiner's or carpenter's work which he 
cannot do; nay, if need be, he can build you a new house 
almost single-handed. . . . He is the soul of punctuality, 
and if you order him to wake you at four o'clock in the morn- 
ing, you may sleep soundly until the last moment in the full 
confidence that at five minutes past that hour it will be your 
own fault if you have not made considerable progress with your 
toilet. He is honest if you trust him" — though Seebohm adds 
that to earn a glass of vodka he will lie without shame and 
commit a petty theft without remorse. 

The vices of the poor are often reproduced in enlarged 



UNDER THE CZAR. 143 

form among the rich, but so are also some of their virtues. 
The Russian gentleman is sociable, kind and ready to sacrifice 
his own comforts at the call of strangers who have no claims 
but those of hospitality upon him. Travelers agree that he is 
too good-natured and repugnant to harshness to rule his chil- 
dren, and it is said that they are in consequence over-indulged 
and often grow up wilful and wild. 

It is now generally admitted that Siberian exile, which 
has long been regarded as the deepest stain upon Russia's 
name, has been grossly misrepresented. Some years ago 
an English minister, the Rev. Henry Lansdell, traveled through- 
out Siberia. He had devoted many years to visiting the prisons 
of Europe, and his object in visiting Siberia was to visit its 
prisons also in order to distribute Bibles and religious tracts 
and to learn the true condition of the inmates. Mr. Lansdell 
says that much has been written in regard to the condition of 
the exiles in Siberia that is absolutely false. One author wdio 
published an account of his exile in Siberia was never there. 
"Escapes" and so-called "revelations" of Siberia of j^ersons 
who were banished only a few days' journey beyond the moun- 
tains which divide Siberia from Russia amount to little, as the 
severest forms of exile are to be found farther on. Mr. Lans- 
dell says that he doubts if any English author had preceded 
him. A master-key was put into his hands that opened every 
door, and not on a single occasion was admission refused him, 
and statistics were given him freely whenever he asked for 
them. He says that in dealing with criminals the Russian 
government sends only the most incorrigible to Siberia, society 
thus getting rid of a bad member, and the wilderness country 
receiving a fresh accession for its development. Only a small 
per cent, of the exiles are sent on account of political crimes. 



144 TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Probably one-fifth of them are charged with no particular 
crime, but are sent because they are obnoxious to the com- 
munity in which they live. If a man in Kussia is idle and a 
drunkard, and will neither pay his taxes nor support his family, 
the village parliament votes him a nuisance, hustles him out of 
town and pays his expenses to Siberia. Their plans, however, 
in each case are first submitted to higher authorities for con- 
summation. He is sent to Siberia not to be imprisoned, but to 
get his living as a colonist and "grow u]3 with the country." 
The political exiles, as a rule, are accommodated with free 
lod2;ino;. 

Among the many savage races supposed to be under the 
Czar's rule, none is perhaps more interesting than the Samoy- 
edes, a wandering people to be found along the shores of the 
Arctic Ocean. It is said that they have a marvelous capacity for 
brandy, and they have been charged with many other vices. 
Yet they are among the few savages who are pronounced inca- 
pable of any very serious crimes. They are faithful in friend- 
ship and the rights of property are sacred among them. While 
they are popularly supposed to be a race of thieves, it is certain 
that they do not steal from one another. They reverence their 
dead and honor their memory. Mr. Rae, to whom the world 
is indebted for most that is known of these primitive people, 
has, on the whole, a high opinion of them, and regards them 
as far superior in generosity and general character to many 
races which occupy a much higher place in public esteem. In 
his account of the Samoyedes Mr. Rae relates an incident which 
may be appropriately applied to most of the prejudiced ac- 
counts which we have of savage nations. " ' What filthy beasts,' 
said an English gentleman to whom I related a few Samoyedes' 
traits on my return to England. And when he had said so, 



UNDER THE CZAR. 145 

that gentleman went home and swallowed oysters alive, ate 
game in so decomposed a condition that it would offend a 
Samoyede, and cheese so decayed that a Samoyede dog would 
avoid it on the tondras; then he took a glass of brandy and 
thanked goodness that he was not as those Samoyedes were." 



XII. 

THE MALAGASY. 

The Malagasy people, as the inhabitants of Madagascar 
are called, have always possessed some degree of civilization. 
They live in fortified towns and villages, spin and weave silk, 
cotton, hemp and other fabrics, manufacture straw-jDlaited 
articles of great beauty and delicacy, and show great skill in 
metal work and other handicrafts. The houses of the wealthy 
people are constructed of timber on a large scale, and much 
money is lavished upon tombs. While the race has no written 
character, and are consequently not a cultured people, they are 
by no means deficient in mental power. Children are bright 
and intelligent, and in recent years a number of the young 
men have taken degrees in English universities. Although 
they have no written literature, they have a considerable amount 
of what may be called unwritten literature, which gives abun- 
dant evidence of their intellectual acuteness and imaginative 
power. Nearly all the men are ready and fluent speakers, and 
many of them have remarkable oratorical ability. 

The Malagasy religion never had the cruel, repulsive 
feature which characterizes most of the religions of heathenism. 
With the exception of one tribe in the southeast of the island, 
human sacrifice has never been practiced among them, and 
self-torture and mortification are unknown. Long before their 
conversion to Christianity there existed among them a higher 
tone of humane feeling than is usually found among pagan 

C149) 



150 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANIIY. 

nations. It is true that infanticide was, to a limited extent, 
practiced among them, but Mr. Sibree, who was for many- 
years a missionary in Madagascar, says that it had its origin 
in the belief that children born on certain unlucky days would 
be exposed to misfortune if allowed to live. " With this ex- 
ception, it is undeniable that there was an absence of most of 
those revolting and barbarous usages so frequently found in 
connection with idolatry in Polynesia, China and India." 
There is everywhere a strong mutual affection between parents 
and children, and a notable res]3ect and care for the aged, in- 
firm and sick. Of the cruelty and indifference to human suf- 
fering which existed during the reign of E-adama I. and Ra- 
navalona, of which so much has been said, Mr. Sibree claims 
that this was largely caused either directly or indirectly by 
European influence. " The miseries caused by the slave-trade 
were a direct result of the cupidity and heartlessness of foreigners, 
while the desolating wars carried on by both these sovereigns 
were an indirect and unintended consequence of the very 
measures of the English government to put a stop to the slave 
traffic." 

While the Malagasy women are not respected and honored 
as in Africa, they are not made slaves or drudges as is usual 
in barbarous or semi-civilized countries, nor are they looked 
down upon as essentially inferior to men. It is true that the 
marriage tie is too easily severed, but public opinion acts as a 
restriction upon the husband's caprice, and separations are not 
so common as might be expected. 

In common with other peojDle of Asiatic descent, the Ma- 
lagasy people excel in hospitality. The writer whom I have 
just quoted says that during his journeys through the island he 
seldom stopped either at midday or in the evening at any vil- 



THE MALAGASY. 153 

lage without receiving a visit from the chief or his family, who 
brought presents with tliem. " Fowls, rice, potatoes, eggs and 
honey were constantly brought to us, preceded by a speech 
which, of course, was unintelligible to me, but which I was in- 
formed was a recital of the names and honors of the queen, 
and of their pleasure at seeing the foreigner in their village." 
Travelers from the earliest times who have visited Madagascar 
have borne testimony to the courteous and polite conduct of 
the people. Their politeness, though excessive, is genuine. 
The poorest among the people have a natural dignity and ease 
of manner that is uncommon among people of the same class 
in our own country. If a person is about to pass another who 
is sitting in the house or in front of his doorway, he bends 
low, and, with his hands nearly touching the ground, says : 
"Allow me to pass, sir," to which there is a gracious response : 
" Pray, proceed, sir." 

The persecution of the Christian converts in Madagascar 
during the reign of Queen Ranavalona, horrible as it was, gave 
to the world one of the most beautiful chapters in the history 
of Christian heroism. The persecution lasted twent3^-five years? 
reckoning from the departure of the last English missionaries 
to the death of the queen, and during all this time it was a 
capital offence to pray to the true God, invoke the name of 
Christ, or read the Scriptures or any Christian book. Yet 
through all these years the faithful continued to observe in 
secret, in the recesses of the forest, in caves, and even in rice 
holes the ordinances of Christianity. 

" The first Christian martyr," says Mr. Sibree, " was a 
young woman named E-asalama. In the year 1837 she was put 
to death by spearing at Ambohipotsy, the southern extremity 
of the long rocky hill on which the capital is built. She had 



154 THE BRIOHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

previously been subjected to cruel torture, by being put into 
irons, made not so much for security as to inflict severe punish- 
ment. These irons consisted of rings and bars, and were so 
fastened around the feet, hands, knees and neck as to confine 
f»Llie whole body in the most excruciating position, forcing the 
extremities together as if packed in a small case. Being led 
the next morning to the place of execution, she expressed her, 
joy that she had received the knowledge of the truth, and con- 
tinued singing hymns on the way. Passing by the chapel where 
she had been baptized, she exclaimed: 'There I heard the words 
of the Saviour.' On reaching the fatal spot she calmly knelt 
down, and in solemn prayer committed her spirit into the 
hands of her Redeemer, and in that attitude was speared to 
death." 

In the year following, Rafaralahy, a noble-minded and 
devoted Christian, shared a similar fate on the same spot, and 
exhibited in his last moments the same holy confidence and 

joy- 

"The 28th of March, 1849," says Mr. Sibree, "will long 
be remembered as a terrible and yet a glorious day in the relig- 
ious history of Madagascar. Nineteen Christians were con- 
demned to death, and in the presence of a great multitude wit- 
nessed a good confession with heroic fortitude and even with 
joy. Of this number fourteen suffered at Ampamarinana, a 
place Avhich has been compared to the Tarpeian Rock of Rome, 
but which on that day beheld a scene that has no parallel in 
classic story. This name is borne by a precipice which forms 
part of the bold cliffs by which the western side of the city of 
Antanananivo descends to the plain. The narrow platform of 
rock at its summit is not more than one hundred and fifty yards 
distant from the great palace, although considerably lower in 




IN MADAGASCAR WILDS. 



(155) 



THE MALA OAST. 157 

level SO that a stone could almost be thrown upon the spot from 
the balconies. The face of the cliff is broken by a projecting 
ledge about half-way down, but the total fall of those who were 
liQ]-led from the top was about a hundred and fifty feet. This 
punishment was reserved for sorcerers, or rather those declared 
to be guilty of such offences by the poison-ordeal. It will be 
remembered that the Christians were supposed to be able to 
resist the queen's commands through the influence of some 
powerful spell or charm. 

"The fifteen, wrapped in mats, and with mats thrust in 
their mouths to prevent their speaking to each other or to the 
people, were then hung by their hands and feet to poles, and 
carried to the place of execution. But the attempt wholly to 
stop their mouths failed, for they ]:)rayed and addressed the 
crowd as they were borne along. Thus they reached Ampa- 
marinana. A rope was then firmly tied round the body of 
each, and one by one fourteen of them were lowered a little 
way over the precipice. While in this position, and when it 
was hoped by their persecutors that their courage would fail, 
the executioner, holding a knife in his hand, stood waiting for 
the command of the officer to cut the rope. Then for the last 
time the question was addressed to them, 'Will you cease to 
pray?' But the only answer returned was an emphatic 'No.' 
Upon this the signal was given, the rope was cut, and in 
another moment their mangled and bleeding bodies lay upon 
the rocks below. One of those brave sufferei-s for Christ, whose 
name was Kamanambonina, as he was led to the edge of the 
precipice, begged his executioners to give him a short time to 
pray, 'for on that account,' he said, 'I am to be killed.' His 
request being granted, he kneeled down and prayed very earn- 
estly ; and having risen from his knees, he addressed the peo- 



158 



THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



pie with such powerful and subduing eloquence that all were 
amazed, and many struck with awe. 

"One only of the condemned was spared. A young 
woman, who was very much liked by the queen, was placed 
where she could see her companions fall, and was asked, at the 
instance of the queen — who wished to save her, but could not 
exempt her from the common sentence against the Christians — 
whether she would not worship the gods and save her life. She 
refused, manifesting so much determination to go with her 
brethren and sisters to heaven, that the officer standing by 
struck her on the head, and said, 'You fool! — you are mad!' 
They sent to the queen and told her that she had lost her rea- 
son, and should be sent to some place of safe keeping." 

Speaking of the marvelous changes which have been 
wrought among the people by Christianity, Mr. Sibree says 
that in the only war which has occurred for many years the 
queen gave strict orders " to prevent the needless shedding of 
blood, that property should be respected and no slaves be made 
—that, in short, the soldiers were to remember that they were 
Christians and not heathens. One division of the army had to 
attack the chief stronghold of the enemy, and a few lives were 
thus lost, but the other succeeded in gaining their end entirely 
bv peaceful means. The Xew Testament was appealed to as 
the standard of conduct by which the Hovas wished to act; 
property and life were respected, the gospel was regularly 
preached in the camp, so that the heathen people of that dis- 
trict heard for the first time what ' praying really was ; ' and 
they were astonished at the change which the profession of 
Christianity had brought about in their Hova conquerors. 
Thus peace was restored and the army departed with the good- 
will of the people who acknowledged that the gospel which the 



THE MALAGASY. 159 

Hovas preached was not a weakening of their strength, pre- 
venting them from fighting, 'a but showing of mercy.'" Mr. 
Sibree says that the army was, of course, not all composed of 
Christians, but there was such a strong Christian element in it 
that this largely influenced its conduct as a whole. 




A FAMOUS BELLE OF JAPAN. 



XIII. 

THE FRENCHMAN OF THE EAST. 

Three hundred years ago St. Francis Xavier declared 
that Japan was the delight of his soul. A little later Adams, 
the English pilot major, sending home an account of the land 
where he was at that time a prisoner, gave it as his opinion 
that the people of Japan were "good of nature, courteous above 
measure, and valiant in war. Their justice is universally exe- 
cuted without any partiality upon transgressors of the law. 
They are governed in great civility : I mean there is not a land 
better governed in the world by civil ]3olicy. The people are 
very superstitious in their religion and of divers opinions; 
also very subject to their governors and superiors." Kaempfer 
a hundred years later describes the Japanese as bold, heroic, 
revengeful, desirous of ftime, very industrious and inui-ed to 
hardships, great lovers of civility and good manners, and very 
nice in keeping themselves Mud their houses clean and neat. 
"As to all sorts of handicrnfts, either curious or useful, they 
are wanting, neither proper materials, nor industry, nor appli- 
cation ; and, so far is it that they should have any occasion to 
send for masters from abroad, that they rather exceed all other 
nations in ingenuity and a neatness of workmanship, particu- 
larly in brass, silver, gold and copper." Later authorities 
agree that the Japanese are industrious, neat, artistic, loyal, 
docile, of fine manners and high spirit, bright and often fascin- 
ating; though by some they are regarded as deceitful, insincere, 

(161) 



162 THE B BIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

vain and frivolous. Most writers agree that they have less 
high-strung nerves than the Europeans. Sir Edwin Arnold, 
however, declares that it is doubtful whether any nation pos- 
sesses a more nervous organization than the Japanese. "Their 
love of light, delicate pleasures ; their keen appreciation of the 
teacup, of a spray of cherry blossoms or a maple branch whose 
leaves are green stars, of the tiny pipe, of the deliciously 
mingled landscapes of their country, go to show their extreme 
impressionability." They have been well called the French- 
men of the East. 

Sir Edwin Arnold thinks that the central characteristic of 
the Japanese is self-respect, and that their patience, their fearless- 
ness, their quietism, their resignation and a large proportion of 
their other virtues have root in this deep and universal quality. 
The same writer says that he has never passed days more happy, 
tranquil and restorative than among Japanese of all classes in 
the cities, towns and villages of Jajoan, though he admits that 
what he says of the Japanese should be received with the pro- 
per caution attaching to the language of a friend and even a 
lover. "Where else in the world," he asks, "does there exist 
such a conspiracy to be agreeable; such a widespread compact 
to render the difficult affairs of life smooth and graceful as cir- 
cumstances admit; such fair decrees of fine behavior fixed 
and accepted for all; such a universal restraint of the coarser 
impulses of speech and act; such jDretty joicturesqueness of 
daily existence; such sincere delight in beautiful and artistic 
things; such frank enjoyment of the enjoyable; such tender- 
ness to little children; such widespread refinement of tastes 
and habits; such courtesy to strangers; such willingness to 
bless and to be blessed?" 

It is true that the forms of politeness in Japan are some- 




A TYPICAL JAPANESE BEAUTY. 



(163) 



THE FRENCHMAN OF THE EAST. 165 

times carried to a ridiculous extreme. When you are invited, 
to dine, the invitation will state that no special preparation will 
be made for the occasion. At the beginning of the meal the 
hostess will apologize for presuming to set before you such 
dirty food, and will solemnly affirm that she has nothing what- 
ever fit for you to eat. The greetings between friends are often 
very amusing. Mr. Peery in his "Gist of Japan" says that 
he has often overheard such conversations as the followino;. 
Two men meet in the street, bow very low, and begin: 

"I have not had the pleasure of hanging myself in your 
honorable eyes for a long time." 

" I was exceedingly rude the last time I saw you." 

"No; it was surely I who was rude. Please excuse me." 

" How is your august health ? " 

" Very good, thanks to your kind assistance." 

" Is the august lady, your honorable wife, well?" 

"Yes, thank you; the lazy old woman is quite well." 

"And how are your princely children?" 

"A thousand thanks for your kind interest. The noisy, 
dirty little brats are well, too." 

"I am now living on a little back street, and my house is 
awfully small and dirty; but if you can endure it, please honor 
me with a visit." 

"I am overcome with thanks, and will surely ascend to 
your honorable residence, and impose my uninteresting self 
upon your hospitality." 

"I will now be very impolite and leave you." 

"If that is so, excuse me. Sayonara." 

Everywhere in Japan the ear is gratified by those soft 
praises of old world deference and consideration which, as Sir 
Edwin says, fill the air like plum and cherry blossoms falling. 



166 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

It is said that there is not an ugly word in the Japanese lan- 
guage — not an oath, not a foul phrase, scarcely an improper 
phrase of any sort. Even when common coolies quarrel the 
worst they can think of is "The fellow!" Even the lowest 
slums are free from vile epithets, whatever else they may con- 
tain. The Japanese are good-tempered, and they know how to 
use good-tempered words. Mr. Arnold tells a story of a man 
who was rolling a timber-barrow along the road one day and 
ran against the bamboo pole of a citizen's veranda, sweeping it 
away and bringing down some of the tiles. Out comes the 
owner deeply agitated to expostulate; but, because the coolie 
stands bowing with covered head and endeavoring to explain, 
the shopkeeper tries to snatch off his covering, crying, "Do 
you dare to apologize to me with your hat on your head?" 
This angers the coolie, who ceases to express his regrets and 
simply explains that it was due to a flat place in the road. 
Presently the shopkeeper sees that the coolie had broken his 
wheel, and, his passion instantly leaving him, he bows low and 
says: "It was the honorable mutuality." "Yes, Danna," re- 
sponds the mollified coolie, "truly it was the honorable mutu- 
ality." And with a profusion of bows they separate. 

Even the custom-house officials, says Dr. Francis E. 
Clark,* bow low when we present our keys and request them 
to examine our trunks, and the jinrikisha men almost bend 
themselves to the dust before us in their polite entreaties that 
we favor them with our patronage. 

"As we go up the street, if we step into a Japanese stoi-e 
to buy so much as a sheet of paper, we are greeted with a low 
salaam by the proprietor, who deems it quite awkward to go 

* " Our Journey Around the World," by Francis E. Clark. Hartford, 
Conn. : A. D. Worthins;ton & Co. 



THE FRENCmiAN OF THE EAST. 



167 



directly to business without a few polite preliminary genuflec- 
tions. 

"When we reach our boarding-house a smiling man-ser- 
vant stands upon the piazza to take our baggage with the most 
gracious bow, and the door is opened by a maid-servant who 
almost touches the floor with her forehead, so low is her obei- 
sance as she admits us within the penetralia. 

" When we go upon the platform to make an address our 




JAPANESE LADIES. 



audience often ibises and bows, and when we begin to speak it 
is the proper thing to make as low a salute as our American 
stiffness and previous training will allow. Upon this the audi- 
ence all bow most graciously once more. At the conclusion of 
the address the speaker bows again, and the audience returns 
the salute. 

" But it is when we receive callers that the most trying 
politeness is expected. Tlie caller bows and we bow, and then 



168 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

the caller bows again and we bow still lower. Again, our 
Japanese visitor bends his body in a third genuflection, and we 
follow suit, doing our best to bow in Japanese if we cannot 
speak Japanese. 

"If we were well trained we should not lift up our stoop- 
ino' fio-ure until our visitor had begun to raise himself from his 
salutatory posture, and we furtively glance out of the corners 
of our eyes to see if he is not almost through with his bowing. 
Sometimes a peculiar little guttural grunt indicates that the 
visitor has finished his genuflections, and that we can raise our 
own bodies to an upright posture with propriety. I very much 
fear that I have many times broken all the laws in the Japanese 
code of propriety and courtesy, but I trust I shall be forgiven, 
and that my rudeness will be charged to a lack of early train- 
ing, and to my imperfect western notions of civility." 

Dr. Clark says that one important factor in the Japanese 
obeisance is to get the hinge in the right part of your anatomy. 
The brusque Yankee and stiff Englishman bow simply with 
their heads, and the hinge they use is at the top of their spinal 
columns ; but no such indifferent bobbing of the head will sat- 
isfy the Japanese demands. " One must put the hinge lower 
down, at the base of his spinal column, and bow with his whole 
body instead of the top of his head. A few days of practice 
will make one fairly proficient in this sujDerficial part of the 
Japanese code of etiquette. 

"But not only is their politeness a matter of bows and genu- 
flections; it is as fully indicated in their language. There is a 
polite language which is quite diflerent from that used on ordi- 
nary occasions, and cannot even be understood by those familiar 
only with the colloquial tongue. Even the humblest peoj)le 
use the politest circumlocutions on every possible occasion. 



THE FRENCHMAN OF THE EAST. 



169 



"For instance, when we knock at the door, the person in- 
side cries out 'Ohairi,' which means, 'We welcome your honor- 
able return.' When one greets a friend on the street he says, 
*Ohayo,' which means, literally, 'Honorable early;' or, if trans- 
lated into Irish, it would be : 'The top o' the morning to yez!'" 

Dr. Clark says that Japanese politeness consists not only 
in loading the persons spoken to with all kinds of compliment- 




A JAPANESE HORSELESS CARRIAGE. 

ary adjectives, but also in depreciating one's self. Such a col- 
loquy as this is often heard in Japanese highways : 

"How is your honorable wife this morning?" 

"I thank you, honorable sir, my fool of a wife is very 
well this morning." 

And yet the second speaker may be a most loving and 
exemplary husband ; he only wishes to be properly polite in 
depreciating his own. 

The Japanese are remarkable for kindness of heart. Their 



170 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

affection for brothers and sisters and all kinsfolk is boundless, 
while their reverence for their parents equals that of any people 
of the East, where reverence for parents is almost universal. 
Mr. Thos. W. Knox says if one should inquire into the circum- 
stances of the laboring men whose daily earnings are pitifully 
small and with whom life is a constant struggle, one would find 
that nearly every one of them is supporting somebody besides 
himself, and that many of their families are burdensome for size; 
yet they accept their burdens cheerfully and are always smil- 
ing and apparently happy. Cheerfulness is a virtue throughout 
Japan. The writer says that in his experience with laboring 
men in all parts of the world he has found that the Japanese 
coolie is the most patient, has the kindest heart, is the most 
thankful for honest pay for honest work, and is the most ap- 
preciative of the trifles that his employer gives him in the way 
of presents. 

There is nothing more beautiful than the home-life of the 
Japanese. The houses are more open than with us, and one 
can see the women constantly playing with the children, and 
the children are everywhere in evidence, Mr. Knox says that 
there is probably no country in the world where more atten- 
tion is given to the wants of the children than in Japan, and 
he does not believe it possible for a greater love to exist be- 
tween parents and children than one finds there. " There 
are so many things done for the amusement of children, and 
children seem to enjoy them so much, that it is pleasant to 
study the habits of the people in this respect." Yet the chil- 
dren are not spoiled, but are noted for obedience to their 
parents and readiness to undergo any sacrifice for their sup- 
port and comfort. 

Lafacadio Hearn tells a touching story illustrative of the 



THE FRENCHMAN OF THE EAST. 171 

wonderful depth of feeling which the Japanese have for chil- 
dren. " The infant son of a man who had been murdered 
was brought to face the condemned murderer. * Little one,' 
said the officer to him, ' this is the man who killed your father, 
.... look at him — (here the officer, putting a hand to the 
prisoner's chin, sternly forced him to lift his eyes) — look well 
at him, little boy ! Do not be afraid ; it is painful, but it is 
your duty. Look at him.' 

" From the mother's shoulder the boy gazed with eyes 
widely opened as in fear ; then he began to sob ; then tears 
came ; but, steadily and obediently, he still looked — looked — 
looked — straight into the cringing face. The crowd seemed to 
have stopped breathing. I saw the prisoner's features distort; 
I saw him suddenly dash himself down upon his knees despite 
his fetters, and beat his face in the dust, crying out the while 
in a passion of hoarse remorse that made one's heart ache : 

'"Pardon! Pardon! Pardon me! little one, that I did 
— not for hate was it done, but in mad fear only, in my desire 
to escape. Very, very wicked I have been ; great, unsj^eakable 
wrong have I done you, but now for my sin I go to die. I 
wish to die ; I am glad to die ; therefore, O little one, be piti- 
ful ! Forgive me ! ' 

" The child still cried silently; the officer raised the shak_ 
ing criminal ; the dumb crowd parted left and right to let 
them by. Then, quite suddenly, the whole multitude began 
to sob, and as the bronzed guardian passed I saw what I had 
never seen before — what few men have seen — what I shall 
probably never see again : the tears of a Japanese policeman. 

" The crowd ebbed and left me musing on the strange 
morality of the spectacle. Here was justice unswerving, yet 
passionate, forcing knowledge of the crime by the pathetic 



172 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITF. 

witness of its simplest result. Here was desperate remorse 
praying only for pardon before death ; and here was a populace 
—perhaps the most dangerous in the empire when angered — 
comprehending by touch, but all satisfied with the contrition 
and the shame, and filled, not with wrath, but only with a great 
sorrow for the sin — through simple, deep, experience of the 
difficulties of life and the weakness of human nature. But the 
most significant, because the most Oriental, fact of the episode 
was that the appeal to remorse had been made through the 
criminal's sense of fatherhood, that potential love for chil- 
dren which is so large a part of the soul of every Jaj^anese."* . 

The story is told that a famous Japanese robber, entering 
a house at night, was charmed by the smile of a baby which 
reached out its hands to him, and that he remained playing 
with the little one until the opportunity for carrying out his 
purpose was lost. " Every year," says Lafacadio Hearn, " the 
police records tell of the compassion shown to children by pro- 
fessional criminals. Some months ao;o a terrible criminal case 
was located by the local papers — the slaughter of a household 
by robbers. Seven persons had been literally hewn to pieces 
while asleep, but the police discovered a little boy quite un- 
harmed, crying alone in a pool of blood ; and they found evi- 
dence unmistakable that the men who slew must have taken 
great care not to hurt the child." 

Mr. R. B. Hubbard, at one time Minister of the United 
States to Japan, says that for the great cardinal virtues of loyalty 
and parental and filial devotion no people on earth surpass the 
Japanese. "We mean," he writes, "that love of child for 
the parent which, coupled with obedience and gratitude, never 
grows cold." He adds, that although marriage is not hedged 

* Kokoro, by Lafacadio Hearn. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



THE FRENCHMAN OF THE EAST. 175 

ill by the same vows that are regarded in Western civilization, 
yet from the prince to the coolie they have made tlieir homes 
united and happy. 

Sir Edwin Arnold goes into eestacies over the Japanese 
women, whom he regards as semi-angelic in their sweetness of 
disposition. " They seem," he says, " taken altogether, so 
amazingly superior to their men-folks as almost to belong 
morally and socially to a higher race." It is a mystery which 
Sir Edwin does not undertake to solve, how the Jaj)anese 
woman has developed her gracious sweetness and bright se- 
renity in the atmosphere of unchivalrous mal-estimation sur- 
rounding her from her early times. " The story of these early 
times proves abundantly that she was always what she is now 
— tender, gentle and devoted. Another strange thing is," con- 
tinues this writer, " that though the national morality from our 
point of view would be called low, and the position accorded 
to women has assuredly not been such as to make them heroic, 
nowhere in the world are wives more faithful ; and nowhere 
have there been more moving love stories." It should be 
added, however, that what Sir Edwin has written concerning 
Japanese women has not been wholly from the standpoint of 
a disinterested observer, his wife being a noted Japanese 
beauty. 

In honesty the Japanese excel all other peoples of the 
East. In a letter to the author, describing a journey which he 
made with several missionary companions, the Rev. B. C. Ha- 
worth, of Osaka, writes : " We spent the night in a native hotel 
in Kyoto, and set out early next morning for our journey of 
three days to Kanazawa. We had proceeded by rail as far as 
Lake Biwa, where we were to take a little steamer for a sail of 
four hours across the lake. We had gone aboard and the boat 



176 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

was about to sail when a young man, breathless and streaming 
with perspiration, rushed on board and ran up to Mrs. Hayes 
with her valuable gold watch which she had left under her pil- 
low in the hurry of catching the train, and which she had not 
yet missed, though several hours had elapsed. The chamber- 
maid had discovered the watch and immediately reported it to 
the proprietor, who dispatched the messenger by the next 
train." 

A similar occurrence took place the next day, after the 
party had gone ten miles by jinrikisha from the Japanese inn 
where they had sjDent the night. This time it was a small 
silver fruit knife, of ilo great value, which Mrs. Haworth had 
left at the inn. The innkeeper had sent it after them over the 
mountain road at his own expense. 

Mr. Haworth says that it is common in Japan to recover 
things lost or dropped on the street, the finders almost invari- 
ably reporting such " pick-ups " to the nearest police office. 
"A few days ago one of our missionary ladies discovered on 
arriving at my house that she had lost a valuable lamp from 
her bicycle. I advised her to report it to the police depart- 
ment, as it would doubtless be reported by the finder. When 
I next saw her she said she had received the lamp from a woman 
whose house she passed in returning to her home. The woman 
had seen the lamp fall to the ground and tried to call her, but 
the young lady did not hear. Thinking she would be likely 
to pass that way again, the native woman kept a sharp lookout, 
and was successful in returning the lamp." 

Mr. Haworth adds that these instances, which could be 
multiplied indefinitely, wei'e not the acts of Christians, but of 
ordinary, heathen Japanese. "Of course it would be easy to 
give instances of native dishonesty and vice which, if allowed 



THE FRENCHMAN OF THE EAST. 



179 



to Stand alone, would give quite a different view of the Japan- 
ese character. Our souls are often sorely tried by the conduct 
of even our professed Christians, and the moral standards of 
the nation are not capable of producing the full, well-balanced 
moral character which we admire in the West. But even among 
the unconverted natives we may see such instances of true 
nobility of character as 
would call forth unquali- 
fi e d admiration ; and 
when touched by the 
light of the Gospel, these 
virtues shine with all 
the greater brilliance." 

In confirmation of 
this last statement Mr. 
Haworth relates a beau- 
tiful story of an old 
Japanese convert to 
Christianity, " Father " 
Oshima, who, realizing 
that his eyesight was 
failing, and dreading lest 
he should be cut off 
from his beloved Bible 

and Hymn Book, conceived the plan of copying them with his 
own hand in very large Chinese characters. In writing Japan- 
ese the characters of the Chinese language are used. Begin- 
ning with the Hymn Book, he Avorked at it daily for over a 
year, copying in all 39,708 Chinese characters. The difficulty 
of this work may be conceived when we bear in mind that 
every stroke had to be written under a strong magnifying glass, 

10 




FATHER OSHIMA. 



180 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

for his eyes were too weak, even with spectacles, to enable hiui 
to make out the letters in the Hymn Book and transcribe them 
in the copy. 

"Having succeeded with the Hymn Book beyond his 
hopes, the old man resolved to proceed with the New Testa- 
ment in the same way. His pastor tried to dissuade him from 
attempting more than the Gospel of Matthew, but he was not 
to be moved from his purpose. Day by day he worked on 
until at last in the year of Meiji the 26th {i. e. 1898), seventh 
month, the 11th day, at 11.30 A. M., as he told Mr. Haworth 
with justifiable pride, he wrote the last of the 292,546 Chinese 
characters of the New Testament, having devoted five years to 
the task (including the time spent on the Hymn Book). In 
all he had written 332,254 characters. " Father " Oshima's Bible 
(New Testament) which he showed Mr. Haworth is a marvel 
of Japanese penmanshi]3, the characters being in the clear, 
square style used in piinting, and beautifully executed as to 
form an alignment. It forms a collection of some twenty 
\folumes with pages as large as foolscap. In the accompany- 
ing picture of old Mr. Oshima the aged saint holds in his 
right hand one volume, while the others lie on the table at his 
side. 

"In the execution of this great Bible work not a single 
page of manuscript was spoiled, not a single letter misplaced or 
incorrectly copied. He insists that this was due to no skill of 
his, but to Divine help. He is a faithful church-goer, and he 
never goes without his Bible. If he can ascertain beforehand 
what Scripture portions are to be read in the service, he takes 
only the volumes containing those |)ortions ; but ver}^ often he 
has the whole collection carried to church, although in read- 



THE FRENCHMAN OF THE EAST. 181 

ing lie is obliged to use his magnifying glass in addition to his 
spectacles." 

Another convert who impressed Mr. Haworth was a school 
boy of eighteen, who, on being baptized, was peremptorily ordered 
by his uncle and guardian to come home. His family felt that 
he had scandalized them by becoming a Christian, and they 
threatened to disinherit him of his patrimony, amounting to 
about one hundred thousand dollars, unless he renounced his 
new faith. After striving with him for three days without 
avail, they drove him away and deprived him of his property, 
leaving him wholly without means of support. "Yet," says 
Mr. Haworth, " he cheerfully accejoted his situation, and when 
I talked with him seemed actually happy at his loss." 

The E,ev. H. M. Landis, an American missionary at 
Tokio, T/rites of a young theological student who fell in love 
with a young lady, but could not get the consent of her parents 
to their marriage. One day they met in a neighboring town 
by appointment to deliberate u^^on the best course to pursue. 
Not unnaturally they lost consciousness of the passing hours, 
and before they were aware the last train had left, and they 
were compelled to remain in town over night. "Their con- 
duct, though not challenged on moral grounds, was yet looked 
at askance in such a manner that the young man refrained 
from entering the ministry and devoted himself to teaching. 
Conscious of his innocence, he was nevertheless embittered at 
seeing his hope wrecked. He became, however, an excellent 
teacher. He got married, and the union was blessed with two 
beautiful children. On his return one evening from his teach- 
ing, the mother had disappeared. Though she left no account 
of herself, he supj^osed she had been overtaken by darkness at 
a distant friend's house, and so was not over-anxious. Next 



182 



TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



moiiiing, as he entered the schoolroom, a letter was put in his 
hands. His wife was in prison, having the day before in a 
bazaar suddenly been seized with a kleptomaniac frenzy and 
caught in the act. What to do now was the question. Japanese 
. honor would call for a divorce. He, in great anguish of heart, 
went to see a trusted missionary lady and told her his whole 
sorrow and asked her advice. She frankly told him that divorce 
could not be thought of on Christian grounds. When she was 

through he thank- 
ed her, saying, 
' Your advice I 
had already de- 
cided on before 
coming, and I sim- 
ply wanted to be 
convinced that a 
trusted Christian 
would agree with 
the decision of my 
heart. I shall 
share my wife's dis- 
grace, and seek to 
reclaim her. Per- 
haps God has a deeper lesson for us to learn.' 

"He returned home and wrote a letter in the name of his 
children, entreating her to come back by following the way the 
accompanying Bible directed, outlining their little hands at the 
close, in accordance with a Japanese custom." His wife was 
condemned to several months' confinement in prison, but he 
remained faithful to her, visited her in prison, and succeeded in 
reclaiming her and in restoring her to his home. 





LITTLE MOTHERS IN JAPAN 



THE FRENCHMAN OF THE EAST. 183 

Answering the question, "Are the Japanese people worth 
the efforts which are being made to save them?" Mr, Haworili 
says: "It is scarcely necessary to say tliat the marvelous polit- 
ical transformation through which the country has passed 
within a few decades speaks volumes for the wisdom and pa- 
triotism of the leaders of the nation. In the February num- 
ber of The Assembly Herald Dr. Arthur J. Brown pays an 
unintended compliment to the Japanese. 'Be not deceived by 
the result of the war with Japan,' he says. 'These Japanese 
were successful in it, not because they are smarter, but because 
they had more quickly responded to the touch of the modeiii 
world and had more quickly succeeded in organizing their gov- 
ernment, their army and their navy in accordance witli scien- 
tific methods. More bulky and phlegmatic China was caught 
napping by her wide-awake enemy.' That quality which enabled 
them so swiftly to respond to the touch of the modei'u world 
and to organize her government, her army and navy in accord- 
ance with scientific methods, may not be 'smartness' in Dr. 
Brown's definition of the term, but it is a quality which has 
not only raised Japan to the chief place among Oriental nations, 
but has also compelled the nations of the West to recognize and 
treat with her on terms of equality, a concession enjoyed by no 
other non-Christian nation. Surely such a race of people is 
worth every effort that can possibly be put forth for her con- 
version." 




LEISURE. 



(185) 



XIV. 



THE CHIVALROUS MEXICAN. 

Fanny Chambers Gooch, who 
was for seven years a close observer 
of Mexican life, says that one of the 
happiest discoveries she made dur- 
ing "those days of a bewildering 
struggle with a new civilization" 
was that, despite the representations 
of our own countrymen, fidelity, ten- 
derness and untirino- devotion were 
as truly Mexican characteristics as 
American. Brantz Mayer, who was 
at one time secretary of the Ameri- 
can legation in Mexico, says that 
he found the Mexicans, kind, gentle, 
hospitable, intelligent and brave ; 
possessing the elements of a fine 
people "who want the stimulus of a 
foreign emulation to bring them for- 
ward amono; the nations of the earth 
with great distinction." In speak- 
ing of their politeness he says : "The 
' old school ' seems to have taken refuge among the Mexicans. 
They are formally and, I think, substantially the politest peo- 
ple I have met with. ... A fine regard for ancient friend- 

(187) 




MEXICAN WOMAN 
HOLIDAY ATTIRE. 



188 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

ship, a universal respect for genius, a competent knowledge of 
the laws and institutions of their country, a perfect acquaint- 
ance with the cause of Mexican decadence, and a charming 
regard for all those domestic rites which cement the affections 
of the home circle, may all be observed and admired within 
the walls of a Mexican dwelling." 

Miss Sarah Hale, who for eleven years was intimately 
associated as a missionary with the highest as well as the 
poorer classes of Mexicans, says that while the people of 
Mexico are not without their defects, she is confident that they 
have no greater faults than Anglo-Saxons would have if they 
were brouglit up under the same circumstances and surround- 
ings. They are very intelligent people. Miss Hale insists 
that she has never seen any reason to believe that the higher 
classes are less intelligent or less gifted than Americans, de- 
claring that she has found among them some of the brightest 
minds she has ever known. 

Of the gracious hospitality for which Mexicans are prov- 
erbial she writes : "I heard an American drummer say that 
in traveling among the small towns where there are no 
hotels he was always entertained by the people, and the fact 
that they could not be induced to accept any compensation 
made it embarrassing for him, as he could not hope ever to 
make any return for their kindness." Mrs. Myrtle Campbell, 
the widow of a well-known missionary in Mexico, writes that 
in her travels with her husband through the country she was 
deeply impressed with the hospitality of the people, especially 
among the poorer classes. " Kare indeed were the times when 
we were not received with the utmost cordiality and offered the 
best in the house even by those who were utter strangers to us. 
Many and many a time, when there was only one bed in the 



TUE CHIVALEOUR MEXICAN. 189 

hut, the usual occupants slept upon the floor and insisted upon 
our usino- it." 

The Mexican women are noted for their charity. AVith 
them it is a passion to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, 
relieve the distressed, and entertain strangers. As Miss Gooch 
says, every battlefield on their soil has left its records of 
the tender devotion of Mexican woiiien to prisoners and cap- 
tives, without regard to name or nationality. Our American 
soldiers, when in their country with death staring them in the 
face, have borne grateful witness to their patient and tireless 
nursing. Even before the dawn of Christianity in Mexico, the 
women practiced a noble charity. AVhen the young prince of 
Tezcuco was flying from his enemies, weary and dust-stained, 
he suddenly found himself in the presence of a young girl who 
was reaping in the field. He hastily informed her of his 
danger and entreated her aid. She was moved to pity, and, 
telling him to lie down, covered him with leaves and stalks. 
" The housewife is supplied with home remedies," says Miss 
Gooch, " that she may give effect to her charitable interest in 
the sick and suffering. In many places ladies in high j)laces 
unite on a saint's -day in giving a dinner to the poor. Each 
one contributes to the feast, and then with her daughters and 
friends waits on the squalid guests." 

" Two of the most interesting young people," continues 
Miss Gooch, "whose acquaintance I made at the Capital, were 
descendants of an humble Indian woman. With her sick babe, 
only a month old, homeless and friendless, she trudged through 
the rain at dusk. A charitable lady from the interior of a 
luxurious home witnessed the scene, and, calling the woman, 
took the babe to her heart as if it were her own. She proposed 
to her to adoj)t the child, promising a mother's care. The 



190 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

trust was sacredly kejDt, and though this lady afterward became 
the mother of fifteen cliildren, the poor waif was retained in 
the family and developed into a lovely woman." * 

In no country are family ties stronger than in Mexico. 
The same writer says that the thought of separation is to them 
fraught with unspeakable anguish, and even after marriage it is 
not unusual to see half-a-dozen families living in the same 
house, daughters with their husbands, and sons with their 
wives remaining under the paternal roof The time never 
comes in the lives of the parents when the children are not 
more or less amenable to them. Grown sons and dausfhters 
do not forget the respect and obedience which were expected of 
them when children, and reverence for parents goes with them 
in their wedded lives and even increases with the lapse of 
years. A Mexican never grows too old to kiss the hands of 
his aged parents, or to visit them every day if he resides in 
the same city. 

A striking instance of the attachment which Mexicans 
have for their kindred is related by Miss Hale. She boarded 
for some time in a family of the highest class. This family 
had suffered a serious reverse of fortune, and were hardly able 
to give their children the clothing and education which their 
position demanded; yet, notwithstanding their straitened cir- 
cumstances, they received into their home two maiden aunts of 
advanced years, and treated them with such kindness, respect 
and affection as to impress them constantly with the fact that, 
so far from being a burden, their presence gave j)leasure to the 
family. " I have no reason," adds Miss Hale, " to think that 
this family did more than most Mexican families would have 

^- " Face to Face with the Mexicans," by Fanny Chambers Gooch. New 
York : Fords, Howard & Hurlbut. 



THE CHIVALROUS MEXICAN. 191 

done uiuler similar circumstances." Like Miss Gooch, she 
was charmed with the elegant manners of the educated class, 
as well as the politeness of the lower classes, and thinks that 
Americans are generally inferior in these two particulars. 

In America the very name of Mexican suggests insin- 
cerity, but Miss Gooch says that in all their professions of 
friendship she found them perfectly frank. She admits that 
they are gifted in a high degree with the art of evasion ; but 
she insists that this art is rarely used for unworthy ends. "Let 
one who has had trouble confide in them, and let them be but 
fully convinced that they are the trusted custodians of such 
confidence, and nothing can induce them to betray the confi- 
dence so reposed. The penalty of severest judgment cannot 
wring from them the secret entrusted to them, but by the 
dainty manipulation of their admirable tact and diplomacy the 
inquirer is satisfied, and not one syllable betrayed. As well 
try to make an incision in the side of Popocatepetl with a 
penknife as extract from a Mexican what he does not want to 
tell you." 

The Mexicans excel in their kind attentions to the be- 
reaved. In an account of a sorrow of her own wdiile in 
Mexico, this ardent admirer says that her friends never left her 
for a moment day or night, and in deference to her bereave- 
ment were all robed in sombre black. " Every possible deli- 
cacy that could tempt a wayward appetite was brought, and 
notes and messages came daily to my door, and numberless in- 
quiries expressive of sympathy and desire to serve me from the 
male relatives of my friends. These affectionate and tender 
attentions could not have been exceeded by those endeared to 
me by ties of blood." 

The Mexicans are a knightly race, and when a man mar- 



192 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

ries, if his wife lias a widowed mother or sisters without the 
means of support, " it never occurs to him that it is not his 
duty to keep and maintain them. This office they cheerfully 
accept as a hereditary right, and it is a notable fact that the 
estates of orphans and widows are administered with great 
faithfulness." 

Miss Gooch says that in many homes she has seen the 
husband regularly three times a day bring from the court- 
yard a flower to lay on his wife's plate ; and such little atten- 
tions are not meaningless. "I have also known many instances 
whei-e the husband fondly insisted on the wife so placing her- 
self at the table that she mio-lit be excused from servino- either 
the soup or coffee — sayiug that the care of the children was 
enough for her." Most travelers agree that in social life there 
are no more agreeable companions than educated Mexican 
gentlemen, and they are still more delightful when one comes 
to know them intimately upon the basis of friendship, " their 
time and means being alike at one's disposal ; and wherever 
fate may. lead them, they follow the fortunes of their friends." 
It is related that an American family was conveyed by a gentle- 
man on a journey of five hundred miles over a rough and 
barren country, and nothing would induce the generous Mexi- 
can to receive one cent in compensation. Wealthy Mexicans 
have a passion for endowing hospitals and institutions of learn- 
ing, and it is said that a governor of Coahuila devoted his en- 
tire salary during his term of office to the establishment of 
public schools in his State. 

Of Mexican indolence a recent writer says that while the 
country is one in which all have leisure to spare, only shallow 
observers will set the inhabitants down as " the laziest, nothin'- 
worthin'est set in the world ! " " The fact is, they are idlers 



THE CHITALROUS MEXICAN. 193 

and they are workers, proficient in both j^ractices, considered 
as equally necessary, as tliey have learned to look upon life. 
They like to idle, sit quietly and observe keenly, and they also 
like to work when its reward is in sight, exhibiting then a re- 
markable activity, steadiness and concentration, given, however, 
to lapsing, just as their immediate ' forbears' were forced into 
frequent resting during hunts when hunting was the sole busi- 
ness in America." 



XV. 

A PEOPLE WHO CANNOT HATE. 

Robert Louis Stevenson declared that tlie best specimen 
of the Christian hero he ever met was a native Hawaiian mis- 
sionaiy. A later writer says that he does not believe that the 
Hawaiians know how to hate. All travelers agree that they 
are amiable, sympathetic, kind-hearted, forgiving in spirit and 
absolutely free from treachery. There is scarcely a word in 
the native speech by which enmity can be expressed, and 
the average Hawaiian seems to be utterly incapable of cherish- 
ing ill-feelings against anyone. The language is not only free 
from words expressive of malevolence, but it is said that if a 
citizen of Hawaii wants to' swear he is driven to the necessity 
of using a foreign tongue. On the other hand, the language is 
j)rolific in words expressive of love and good-will. Their word 
"Aloha," which means practically "My love to you," is always 
on their lips. "If a Hawaiian," says a writer, "were to give 
you his autograph, he would write 'Aloha' instead of 'Yours 
truly.' " With these facts in mind one is prepared to learn 
that nowhere else are people more peaceful and law-abiding, 
and that most of the convicts in their ^^risons are foreigners. 

The pure Hawaiians are rapidly disappearing by absorp- 
tion into other races, and the reddish-brown skin wliich origin- 
ally distinguished them is now rarely seen ; nor are the facial 
characteristics so prominent as they were a generation ago. 
The aborigines bear considerable resemblance to the Maoris of 

(195) 



196 THE BRIGHT SIDE OP HUMANIIT. 

New Zealand, and their ancestors probably came from the 
East Indian Archipelago. "During the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries, according to concurrent traditions, there was a general 
movement of the population of central Polynesia, during which 
the Haney Islands and New Zealand were populated. The 
intercourse between the islands, however, was not maintained, 
and at the time of Ca23tain Cook's discovery the Hawaiians 
knew nothing of the world beyond their group." The original 
inhabitants were comparatively intelligent, though they made 
little progress in the arts. They were destitute of metals, 
cereal, grain, cotton and flax and beasts of burden, and their 
tools were made of lava, sharks' teeth and bamboo; but in 
building canoes and houses they showed great skill in the use 
of such primitive implements as they j^ossessed. Their de- 
scendants, who constitute hardly one-third of the present popu- 
lation, and who have, perhaps, degenerated in character since 
prehistoric times, are large of stature, well developed, and " in 
every respect they are physically among the finest people of 
the earth." Formerly they tattooed tlieir bodies, and this 
])ractice is still noted to a limited extent among the lower 
classes on the small islands. 

The most interesting people of the island to-day are the 
half-whites. Under the monarchy it was regarded as an ad- 
vantage to marry into a native family, and there are many 
whites of high standing who have Hawaiian waives. The half- 
white women are very attractive — many of them being beautiful 
and of pleasing manners. They are all good-natured and 
exceedingly hospitable. " As soon as a traveler stops at a 
native hut it is customary for one of the women to ask if he is 
'full,' meaning if he is hungry; and, without waiting for a 
reply, she may feel of his stomach in order to form an inde- 



A PEOPLE WHO CANNOT HATE. 197 

pendent judgment on the subject." The half-whites retain 
many of the native Hawaiian characteristics. They are well 
educated and refined, as that term is understood amorio; them, 
though one Avriter thinks that a Boston dame ''would hold up 
her hands in holy horror at some of their doings." He adds, 
however, that one's views in this regard, esjDecially upon short 
acquaintance, aiid "judging from customs under which they 
have lived rather than those which obtain here, would depend 
largely upon the purity of one's own mind." 

The overthrow of idolatry in the Hawaiian Islands forms 
one of the most charming chapters in the history of Christian 
missions. When the first missionaries landed in 1820 thoy 
yvere startled by the intelligence that the fabu had been 
abolished and that idolatry was no more. Incredible as it 
seemed, the news proved to be true. The people of their own 
will — rather the will of the overruling Spirit — had renounced 
their idols and were waiting for new light. Almost from the 
beginning the gospel had free course. Great tidal waves of 
religious zeal swept over the island from time to time, and in 
less than a generation the Hawaiians had been transformed 
into a Christian nation. During the revival in 1843 twenty- 
seven thousand converts were brought into the church. It is 
often claimed that the islanders have been made religious rather 
than moral ; nevertheless it was said of those who emigrated to 
California to seek fortunes in the gold mines that among the 
toughs of all nations they were noted as men who would not 
drink or gamble or profane the Sabbath. " In this great com- 
pany of converts," says Miss Brain, "most of whom had been 
only a few ^^ears before repulsive savages worshipping idols, it 
was hardly to be expected that all would ]irove faithful to their 

vows. The number of backsliders, however, was extremely 
1] 



198 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

small. Ill the Hilo district, where the lai-gest ingathering 
occurred, it was found, after a long and thorough testing, that 
but one convert in sixty proved amenable to discipline, and 
that, too, in churches with the strictest New England standards 
of discipleship." The Hawaiian converts were from the first 
noted for their liberality. Though extremely poor, they were 
unwilling to come to any service of the church empty-handed. 
"Among their humble gifts," wrote Titus Coan, "you will see 
one bring a bunch of hemp, another a piece of wood for fuel, a 
mat, a narrow strip of bark cloth, a little salt, a fish, a fowl, a 
taro, a jDotato, a cabbage, a little arrowroot, a few ears of corn, 
and a few eggs. The old and feeble, and children who have 
nothing else to give, gather grass wherewith to covei- and 
enrich the soil." Later, when metal coins were introduced, 
they began to contribute money. The women had a beautiful 
way of training their little ones to give. "The mother put a 
bright coin into her baby's hand and held it over the contribu- 
tion box. If the tiny fingers held on to the shining piece, 
she gently shook it until it fell with a merry ring in the box 
below." ' 

In 1850, just thirty years after the first missionaries landed, 
the Hawaiians organized a Foreign Mission Societv of their 
own, and from that day they have had a place in the first rank 
among the missionary churches of the world. No other Chris- 
tians have given more liberally for the foreign work either of 
men or money. Thirty per cent, of the native pastors have 
become missionaries in other islands. 

Nearly forty years ago, Richard Henry Dana, a distin- 
guished author and lawyer, wrote : " It is no small thing to say 
that the missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M. have, in less than 
forty years, taught this whole people to read^ write, cipher and 



A PEOPLE WHO CANNOT HATE. 199 

sew; they have given them an alphabet, grannnar aiul diction- 
ary ; preserved their language from extinction ; given it a liter- 
ature and translated into it the Bible and works of devotion, 
science, entertainment, etc.; they have established schools, 
reared up native teachers, and so pressed their work that the 
prQjDortion af the inhabitants who can read and write is greater 
than in New England. 

"Whereas they found these people half-naked savages, 
living in the surf and on the sand, eating raw fish, fighting 
among themselves, tyrannized over by feudal chiefs, and aban- 
doned to sensuality, we see them decently clothed, recognizing 
the law of marriage, knowing something of accounts, gOTug to 
school and public worship with more regularity than the people 
do at home, and the more elevated of them taking part in con- 
ducting the affairs of the constitutional government under 
which they live, holding seats on the judicial bench and in 
the legislative chambers, and filling poets in the local magis- 
tracies 

"In no place that I have visited are the rules which con- 
trol vice and regulate amusements so strict, so reasonable and 
so fairly enforced. A man may travel in the interior alone, 
unarmed, even through the wildest spots. I found no hut 
witliout its Bible and hymn-book in the native tongue, and the 
practice of family prayer and grace before meat." 

One of the most remarkable converts to Christianity 
amono; the Hawaiians was the Eev. James Kekela. This man, 
while pastor of the church on the island of Oaliu, was asked 
to accompany the pioneer missionaries to Micronesia and assist 
them in starting a new mission. Shortly before leaving Hawaii 
for this purpose, he delivered an address which reveals some- 
thing of the spirit of the man. 



200 THE BRIOHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

"I am a native of these islands," he said. "My parents 
were idolaters, and I was born in times of darkness. A short 
time ago our people were heathen; they worshipped a great 
variety of gods; they were engaged in war; they were ad- 
dicted to stealing and robbery. Man and wife did not live 
together and eat together as now; they took no care of their 
children. 

"But a great light has arisen over us. The Bible has 
driven away our darkness, overturned our heathenish customs, 
and caused a great imjDrovement in our condition. 

"What is more reasonable than that we Hawaiians should 
extend to other natives in this ocean the blessings of the gospel? 
Tliose tribes are now what we were a short time ago — degraded, 
wretclied idolaters. Shall we not have pity on them, as the 
people of God in the United States have had pity on us?" 

After visiting Micronesia, Kekela went as a missionary to 
the Marquesas Islands, and while there rescued Lieutenant 
Whalon, an American officer, from being killed and eaten by 
Marquesiin cannibals. In acknowledging the present which 
President Lincoln .sent him as a recognition of his heroism, 
Kekela wrote : 

"Greetings to you, great and good Friend! 

"My mind is stirred up to address you in friendship. I 
greatly respect you for holding converse with such humble 
ones. Such you well know us to be, 

"When I saw one of your countrymen, a citizen of your 
great nation, ill-treated, and about to be baked and eaten, as a 
pig is eaten, I ran to deliver him, full of pity and grief at the 
evil deed of these benighted people. 

" As to this friendly deed of mine in saving Mr. Whalon, 
its seed came from your great land, and was brought by certain 



A PEOPLE WHO C^iNNOT HATE. 201 

of your countrymen, who had received the love of God. It 
was planted in Hawaii, and I brought it to plant in this land 
and in these dark regions, that they might receive the root of 
all that is good and true, which is love. 

" How shall I repay your great kindness to me ? Thus 
David asked of Jehovah, and thus T ask of you, the President 
of the United States. This is my only payment — that wdiich 
I have received of the Lord — aloha. May the love of the 
Lord Jesus abound with you until the end of this terrible war 
in your land." 

The most famous of all Hawaiian converts was the high 
chiefess, Kapiolani, a descendant of a long line of kings and 
ruler in her own right of a large district in southern Hawaii. 
*' Notwithstanding her royal lineage and exalted rank," writes 
Belle M. Brain,* '' she was an ignorant and superstitious savage. 
According to Hawaiian custom she had several husbands and 
was addicted to the use of licjuor. The first time the mission- 
aries saw her she was sitting on a rock anointing herself with 
native oil. When the gospel message touched her heart, she 
at once set about reforming her life. She gave up her intem- 
perate habits and dismissed all her husbands except Naihe, the 
powerful national orator, who promised to assist her in promot- 
ing the new religion. So ladylike in dejDortment and so 
lovable in disposition did she become, that she won the respect 
and admiration of natives and foreigners alike. 

'* With great cordiality she welcomed the missionaries 
into her ow^n home and planned with them for the uplifting 
of her people. In her determination to root out suj^er^tition 
and idolatry, she went to the sacred temple of Keave and car- 

*Tlie Transformation of Hawaii, by Belle M. . Brain Fleming II. Revell 
Company. 



202 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

ried away tlie idols, hiding them in inaccessible rocky caves 
near the head of the bay. 

" Going about among her people, she taught them the 
Word of God, entering into the meanest hovels of the poor 
and sick to point them to Christ, and relieve their physical 
wants by generous gifts of food and mats. The burden of lost 
souls weighed heavily upon her. Frequently in the night she 
awakened her women, asking them to unite with her in prayer 
for the conversion of the king;. 

" But there was one great act of Kapiolani's life that ren- 
dered her famous above all the other converts of her race — she 
defied the fire gods of Kilauea and broke their despotic power. 
This brave and courageous deed j^laced her name forever in 
the list of the world's great heroines, and won for her a glow- 
ing tribute from Thomas Carlyle, who tells the story in his 
' Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell.' 

"Though idolatry had been overthrown and tabu abolished 
in Hawaii, many of tlie natives still believed in Pele and dared 
not violate her tabus. Especially was this true in the district 
over which KajDiolani ruled. Her subjects, living in close 
proximity to the volcano, were continually under the spell of 
its awful fires. Then, too, they had rarely witnessed the open 
violation of tabu by foreigners, a sight familiar to natives in 
other parts of the islands. Since the murder of CajDtain Cook, 
which occurred in this region, few strangers visited it, fearing 
to share his tragic fate. 

" In December, 1824, Kapiolani resolved to free her 
people from the thraldom of this superstition and break the 
power of the fire goddess by defying li&r in her own domains. 

" Her plan was to visit the missionaries at Hilo, where a 
mission station had recently been ojDened, taking the track across 



A PEOPLE WHO CANNOT HATE. 203 

the mountain on which the crater is situated — a difficult and 
dangerous journey of one hundred miles across rough lava 
beds. Since there were at that time neither horses nor 
mules iu Hawaii, she was obliged to travel the entire distance 
on foot. 

" Her people were dismayed, and gathered from far and 
near to plead with her to give up so dangerous an exj)loit. 
Even her husband, Naihe, sought to dissuade her. But strong 
in faith, believing that her Heavenly Father would protect her, 
she said to them : ' The tabus are abolished. There is but one 
great God ; He will keep me from harm.' When her people 
found that she could not be induced to abandon the project, 
eighty of them decided to go with her. 

"As they journeyed toward the volcano, Kapiolani was 
stopped again and again by men and women along the way, 
who implored her to return home and not risk Pele's anger. 
With heroic faith she kept bravely on, simply answering: 'If 
I am destroyed you may all believe in Pele ; but if I am not, 
then you must all turn to the true God.' 

" Near the crater they were met by a priestess of Pele who 
claimed authority from the goddess herself. She warned Kap- 
iolani not to enter the sacred precincts of the volcano with un- 
belief and opposition in her heart, threatening her with the 
penalty of death if she persisted in doing so. 

" Nothing daunted by this terrible prediction, Kapiolani 
sat down beside the poor deluded creature and talked with her. 
Taking out her Testament, she taught her of the one true God 
in the heavens. At last the priestess hung her head, declar- 
ing that the goddess had forsaken her and she could say no 
more. 

"Growing along the mountain j)atli were the ohclo berries 



204 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

sacred to Pele, which no Hawaiian dared eat without the per- 
mission of the goddess. Determined to break everj tabu, Kap- 
iolani ate freely of them without making the customary offering, 
but her followers dared not do so. 

"Arriving at the crater, she led the way down the steep, 
rocky path, across the hot lava beds, the ground trembling 
under her feet, and steam issuing from every crevice, to the 
edge of Halemaumau. Into the great lake of fire she deliber- 
ately hurled stone after stone, knowing that nothing could be 
more disrespectful and displeasing to the goddess. 

"Only those who have watched the awful fires of Kilauea, 
and ' who know with what awful terrors pagan deities are 
clothed in the common mind, and with what tenacity these 
superstitions continue to hold even professed converts, can 
imagine what holy courage and faith must have been begotten 
in this Hawaiian heroine.' 

"Turning to her terrified people she said: 'Jehovah is my 
God. He kindled these fires. I fear not Pele. Should I 
perish by her anger, then you may all fear her power; but if 
Jehovah save me in breaking her tabus, then you must fear 
and serve Jehovah. The gods of Hawaii are vain. Great is 
the goodness of Jehovah in sending missionaries to turn us 
from these vanities to the living God.' 

" The whole company then knelt, prayer was offered, and 
the crater rang with the music of a Christian hymn. Above the 
roarino; and cracklino; of the flames could it be heard, echoino; 
and re-echoing to the j)raise of Jehovah. Thus were the fire 
palaces of Pele consecrated as a temple of the living God. 

" Returning as they came, across the bed of the crater, we 
can imagine the terror of the people. No doubt they fully 
expected the thin crust to give away beneath their feet, pre- 



A PEOPLE WHO CANNOT HATE. 205 

cipitating them into the fires below ; or to be overtaken by- 
showers of lava and stones, hurled upon them from behind. 
But the cruel fire goddess failed to avenge herself; they there- 
fore reached the edge of the crater in safety and continued their 
peaceful journey to Hilo. 

"It was a brave and heroic deed that has been likened to 
that of Elijah on Mt. Carmel challenging the priests of Baab 
and to Boniface in Germany cutting down the sacred oak of 
Thor. But Kapiolani displayed a faith more heroic and a 
courage more indomitable than either of these. They had 
never been under the j^ower of the gods they destroyed, while 
less than four years previous she had not even heard of 
Jehovah, in whom she now trusted to save her when defying 
the gods she had worshiped since childhood. 

"Then, too, Elijah stood on the peaceful slopes of Mt. 
Carmel, and Boniface on the quiet plain of Upper Hesse, while 
she stood in the presence of real danger, before those awful 
fires that strike terror to the stoutest hearts. 

" Arriving in Hilo, w^ith feet swollen from the long, hard 
journey, and mind and body utterly weary from exciting- 
experiences, Kapiolani refused to rest until she had secured 
lodgings for her entire company and gathered them together 
for evening worship. 

" While in Hilo she rendered valuable assistance to the 
missionai-ies, going about among the people giving words of 
Christian counsel or reproof to all with whom she came in 
contact. Her benign influence was felt long after her return 
to her own honie. 

" Her beautiful and fruitful life was -ended on May 5, 
1841, when she passed away, fully trusting in the Saviour she 
had served so lont; and faithfullv. She was deeply mourned, 



206 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

not only by her own people, but by the missionaries, who 
realized that they had lost a valued friend and helper. 

" At her funeral her pastor said : ' This nation has lost 
one of its brightest ornaments. She was the most decided 
Christian, the most civilized in her manners, and the most 
thoroughly read in the Bible of all the chiefs this nation ever 
had ; and it is saying no more than truth to assert that her 
equal in these respects is not left in the nation.' " 



XVI. 

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE INDIAN. 

In 1656 a Jesuit missionary among the Iroquois wrote : 
** Among many faults caused by their blindness and barbarous 
education, we meet with virtues enough to cause shame among 
the most of Christians." A little later, Pere Lallemant, a mis- 
sionary among the Hurons, declared that in point of intellect 
the American Indians were not at all inferior to the natives of 
Europe. " I could not have believed," he writes, " that, with- 
out instruction, nature could have produced such ready and 
vigorous eloquence or such a sound judgment in their affairs 
as that which I have so much admired among the Hurons. I 
admit that their habits and customs are barbarous in a thousand 
ways ; but, after all, in matters which they consider as wrong, 
and which their public condemns, we observe among them less 
criminality than in France, although here the only i^unishment 
of a crime is the shame of having committed it." " Simply to 
call these people religious," wrote Captain Bonneville, "would 
convey but a faint idea of the deep hue of piety and devotion 
which pervades the whole of their conduct. Their honesty is 
immaculate ; and their purity of purpose and their observance 
of the rites of their religion are most uniform and remarkable. 
They are certainly more like a nation of saints than a horde of 
savages," 

In 1724 Father Laiitau wrote of the Indians among whom 
he had lived that they were possessed of sound judgment, lively 

(209) 



210 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

imagination, ready conception and a wonderful memory. ''All 
the tribes retain at least some trace of an ancient religion, 
handed down to them from their ancestors, and a form of 
government. They reflect justly upon their affairs, and better 
than the mass of the peo23le among ourselves. They prosecute 
their ends by sure means ; they evince a degree of coolness and 
composure which would exceed our patience ; they never permit 
themselves to indulge in passion, but always, from a sense of 
honor and greatness of soul, appear masters of themselves. 
They are high-minded and proud ; possess a courage equal to 
every trial, an intrepid valor, heroic constancy under torments, 
and an equanimity which neither misfortunes nor reverses can 
shake. Toward each other they behave with a natural polite- 
ness and attention, entertaining a high respect for the aged, 
and a consideration for their equals which appears scarcely re- 
concilable with that freedom and independence of which they 
are so jealous. They make few professions of kindness, but 
yet are affable and generous. Toward strangers and the 
unfortunate they exercise a degree of hospitality and charity 
which might put the inhabitants of Europe to the blush." 

Captain Carver, a noted traveler of the latter part of the 
last century, said that while the Indians with whom he 
mingled were cruel, barbarous and revengeful in war,, they 
were yet temperate in their mode of living, patient of hunger 
and fatigue, sociable and humane to all whom they looked on as 
friends, and ready to share with them the last morsel of food 
they possessed, or to expose their lives in their defence. In 
their public character he describes them as " possessing an at- 
tachment to their nation unknown to the inhabitants of any 
other country, combining, as if actuated by one soul, against a 
common enemy ; never swayed in their councils by selfish or 



THE Till Til ABOUT THE INDIAN. 



211 



2:»arty views, but .Siicrificiiig everything to tlie lioiior and advan- 
tage of their tribe, in support of whicli they fear no danger, 
and are atfected by no sufferings. They are not only affec- 
tionately attached, indeed, to their own offspring, but are ex- 
tremely fond of children in general. The}^ instruct them care- 
fully in their own principles, and train them up with attention 
in the maxims and habits of their nation. Their system con- 
sists chiefly in the influence of example, and impressing on 
them the traditionary histories of their ancestors." 

Writing; of a visit to the 
Indians in the Northwest, he 
says: "I received from every 
tribe of them the most hospit- 
able and courteous treatment, 
and am convinced that till they 
are contaminated by the ex- 
ample and. spirituous liquors of 
their more refined neighbors 
they will retain this friendly 
and inoffensive conduct towards 



strano-ers. 




INDIAN TYPES. 



While visiting the Winne- 
bagoes he met a young chief who was going on an embassy to 
some of the bands of the Sioux. The chief, finding that Captain 
Carver was about to visit the Falls of St. Anthony, agreed to ac- 
company him. " AVe could distinctly hear the noise of the water 
full fifty miles before we reached the Falls; and I was greatly 
pleased and surj^rised when we approached this astonishing work 
of nature ; but I was not Ions; at liberty to indulge these emo- 
tions, my attention being called off by the behavior of my com- 
panion. The prince had no sooner gained the point that over- 



, 212 TEE B RIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

looks this wonderful cascade than he began with an audible voice 
to address the Great Spirit, one of whose places of residence he 
imagined this to be. He told him that he had come a long way 
to pay his adoration to him, and now would make him the best 
offerings in his power. He, accordingly, threw his pipe into 
the stream, then the roll that contained his tobacco, after this 
the bracelets he wore on his arms and wrists, next an orna- 
ment he wore on his neck composed of beads and wires, and, 
at last, the earrings from his ears ; in short, he presented to 
his god every part of his dress that was valuable. During this 
he frequently smote his breast with great violence, threw his 
arms about and appeared to be much agitated. 

"All this while he continued his adorations, and at length 
.concluded them with fervent petitions that the Great Spirit 
would constantly afford us his protection on our travels, giving 
us a bright sun, a blue sky, and clear, untroubled waters; nor 
would he leave the place till we had smoked together with my 
pipe in honor of the Great Spirit. I was greatly surprised at 
beholding an instance of such elevated devotion in so young an 
Indian. . . Indeed, the whole conduct of this young prince 
at once charmed and amazed me. During the few days we 
were together his attention seemed to be wholly employed in 
yielding me every assistance in his power, and even in so short 
a time he gave me innumerable proofs of a most generous and 
disinterested friendship, so that on our return I parted from 
him with the greatest reluctance." 

The Indian has always been a deeply religious being. 
Thomas Hariot, an employee of Sir Walter Kaleigh, writing 
from the Virginia colony in 1587, said that a day seldom 
passed with an Indian " in which a blessing is not asked or 
thanks returned to the Giver of life, sometimes audiblv, but more 



THE TRUTH ABOUT THE INDIAN. 213 

generally in the devotional language of the heart. Catlin the 
artist, who spent eight years among the Indians more than 
forty years ago, living with them in the freest intimacy, wrote: 
"I fearlessly assert to the world, and I defy contradiction, that 
the North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a 
highly moral and religious being, endowed by his Maker with 
an intuitive kiiowledoe of some oreat Author of his beino- and 
the universe — in dread of whose displeasure he constantly lives 
with the apprehension before him of a future state, when he 
expects to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he 
has gained or forfeited in this world." 

Mr. Catlin asserts that he never saw an}^ other people who 
spend so much of their lives " in humbling themselves before 
and worshiping the Great Spirit as these tribes do, nor any 
whom I would not as soon suspect of insincerity and hypocrisy. 
Self-denial and self-torture and almost self-immolation are con- 
tinual modes of appealing to the Great Spirit for his counte- 
nance and forgiveness." 

The piety of the Christian Indian forms one of the most 
charming chapters in the history of modern Christianity. The 
Rev. Edgerton R. Young, for many years a missionary to the 
Red Indians of British America, tells a beautiful story illus- 
trative- of the faithfulness of the Indians to their religious 
principles. 

" Not very long ago," he writes,* " the governor of our 
colony sent out one of his commiseioners to meet the Indians 
with supplies in accordance with the treaty. This commis- 
sioner sent word to one of our Christian Indians to bring his 
people to a certain point, as he would be there and distribute 
their annual allowances. The Indians were on hand at the 

* Christian Endeavor World, Boston. 



214 



THE BBIOHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



time appointed ; they brought nothing from their distant camp- 
fires, for they expected to receive abundant supplies to feast 
upon. But the day came and the big white conmiissioner did 
not arrive — and it is an everlasting disgrace when government 
representatives break word with the Indians. The commis- 
sioner did not come the first day, nor the second ; and the In- 
dians were hungry. They went to the big chief and said : . 
" ' Pakan, our wives and children are hunory for food — 

here are our supplies, the gift 
of the queen to us, and the 
servant hath not yet come to 
distribute them. Will you 
open them and give us enough 
to satisfy us ? ' 

" * Oh, no, my people, I 
have never broken a word of 
treaty and I don't want to 
now,' replied the chief. The 
next day no white man ap- 
peared, and the third morning 
these young Indians' eyes be- 
gan to look ominous, and flash 
out something that boded trouble. They went to the chief and 
said: 'We must have food for our hungry ones.' His answer 
was: 'Have patience a little longer, my people,' and he cailled 
on an Indian who had a splendid horse to accompany him, 
and mounting his own away they went as fast as they could 
to find and hurry up the dilatory commissioner. About noon 
they met him coming along with a large retinue of friends 
and servants. In those days that country abounded in game, 
and these white men had gone out for a good shooting time. 




KIO^A;■AS. 



THE TRUTH ABOUT THE INDIAN. 215 

As Pakan rode into tlie camp at noonday he found them pre- 
paring to sto}^ tliere because not far off was a spot that seemed 
full of game. Pakan said to the commissioner : 

" ' You have broken your promise to my people; you were 
to have met them three days ago. Don't stop here — come on 
and distribute the supplies, for my people are hungry.' 

" ' Oh, Pakan, I am glad to see you,' replied the white 
man ; ' you are the chief, I would like to have you dine with 
me. I hear you are a great hunter; come with us this after- 
noon and show me your skill in hunting.' 

" ' No ! ' said he, ' you have broken your word. The people 
are hungry — come on at once.' 

" ' Oh, no, I am going to have some shooting.' 

" Pakan said : ' When are you coming ? ' 

" * I will come to-morrow.' 

"'Oh,' said Pakan, 'to-morrow is the Sabbath, and we 
have been taught to keep the Sabbath.' 

" The commissioner ansv/ered: ' My religion don't prevent 
me from distributing food on Sunday.' 

" Pakan looked at him. He is one of the finest speci- 
mens of man I ever saw. He bravely replied : 

" ' I don't care what your religion will allow you to do ; 
mine says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; and, 
hungry as we are, unless you come and distribute the food 
to-day we will not take it until Monday.' 

" The man quailed before him, and at once some subordi- 
nate was sent back with him. Before they left the commis- 
sioner said to the chief: ' I will come along to-morrow, and we 
will have our usual annual talk about Indian affairs and the 
distribution of money.' 

" Pakan ]-eplied again: ' To-morrow is the Sabbath, and we 

12 



216 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

will have no treaty talk to-morrow,' and away he rode. The 
next day the white man came on to the Indian encampment. 
He expected the Indians to meet him, hundreds of them, with 
firing of guns and waving of flags, but not one came to receive 
him, and no guns were fired; the only wigwam where the flag 
was flying was the place where the people met together three 
times a day to worship God. He sent for Pakan to come and 
dine with him, but Pakan said: 'I dine with my own family on 
God's day whenever I can,' and he refused the invitation." 

Probably no man in our day has a deeper insight into 
Indian character than Captain John Cussons, the distinguished 
soldier, who spent several years among the Lacotahs, the tribe 
which overran Minnesota, which slew Custer and his command, 
which gave birth to Sitting Bull, and which, as he says, has so 
often since been depicted as a band of incarnate demons — 
bloody-minded, revengeful, treacherous beyond belief. While 
among them. Captain Cussons was absolutely in their power, 
but he found them always kind, generous, faithful and brave. 
In a stirring address on the American Indian, delivered in 
Richmond, Va., Captain Cussons said : 

" Summon the free-born Lacotah of forty years ago — 
the indigenous native American, whom we have so wantonly 
destroyed. Look at him ! — lithe, sinewy, strong, handsome 
in form, and in movement graceful as the leopard. Con- 
stant in his friendships, faithful to his people, crowned 
with the majesty which can dwell only where freedom is — 
a kingly bearing, tempered by that gracious courtesy which 
sjDrings from a union of kindly feeling with conscious strength 
— these were the qualities which marked him while he remained 
untouched by our higher civilization. A savage he may have 
been — wild, unlettered, impatient of restraint — yet he had a 



THE TRUTH ABOUT THE INDIAN. 



217 




devotion and a kindliness which were all his own ; and I am 
not ashamed to say that I have met but few men who have 
more deeply impressed me with a sense of full manhood than 
the typical Lacotah warrior. It may be social ti-eason to avow 
it, yet I have seen Robert E. Lee, both in bivouac and battle^ 
when he has brought vividly to my mind the image of .Matta- 
Num-Pa, a war chief of the Lacotahs. 

" But it is said that they are cruel, heartless, destitute of all 
emotion. Let us see. And let , 
us not forget that the most 
ruthless cruelty is that which 
betrays through the affections. 

"I recall an incident which 
will illustrate my meaning: 

"Plainsmen of forty years 
ao;o will remember the old 
Frenchman, Provo, who had a 
ranch on the North Platte. He 
married an Ogalalla woman, and 
had the reputation of being the 
poorest shot in the country, 
although otherwise he was ac- 
counted a decent sort of man. 
antelope fawn and tethered it in a copse of willows about a 
mile from his lodge, and then went after his old Hawkins rifle, 
his idea beino; that the bleatino; of the fawn would atti-act the 
doe, and thus give him a pot shot. His squaw, suspecting 
what was oroins; on, started for the river bottom on a dead I'un, 
and I cantered over to see what would happen. Wau-seech-ee 
Hung-Coo was a picture of rage and mortification. She seized 
his rifle and flung it in the slough, and then, liberating the 




INDIAN CHIEF OF POLICK. 



One day he picked up an 



218 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

little fawn and flipping her fingers at Provo, she stalked back 
towards the ranch, an embodiment of silent scorn. But soon 
she broke down, and signaling me to her side, she begged that 
I would forget the incident and never mention it to their chil- 
dren. 

"That ' heathen woman ' had never learned from us either 
the teachings or the deeds of mercy. No white man's lips 
had ever interpreted to her the divine- injunction, 'Thou shalt 
not seethe the kid in the mother's milk.' " 

With regard to the revengeful character of the Lacotahs, 
Captain John Cussons said that among Indians fair and equal 
reprisal carries with it the sense of salutary and natural jus- 
tice. It ranks with their highest virtues and accompanies 
them; and he declares that the injury which the Lacotah chief 
resented was not that which was done to himself but to his 
tribe. "It was not revenge, but simple justice." 

Mr. Catlin, whom I just now quoted, says of the Sioux: 
*'I have traveled three years already among these people, and I 
have not had my scalp taken off nor a blow struck me nor had 
occasion to raise my hand against an Indian ; nor has my prop- 
erty been stolen as yet to my knowledge to the value of a shilling, 
and that in a country where no man is punished by law for 
the crime of stealing. . . That the Indians in their native 
state are drunken is false, for they are the only temperance 
people, literally speaking, that I ever saw in my travels or ever 
expect to see. These people manufacture no spirituous liquor 
themselves, and know nothing of it until it is brought into their 
country and tendered them by Christians. Speaking of the 
Sioux ciiief Ha-won-je-pah, he says: "This chief took his 
name 'One Horn' from a little shell which he wore ahvays on 
his neck. This shell had descended to him from his father, 



THK TRUTH ABOUT THE INDIAN. 219 

and the chief said that he valued it more than anytliing which 
he [)0ssessed — affording a striking incident of a living affection 
which these people often cherish for the dead." 

It is said that for thirty years it was the uniform boast of 
the Sioux in every council that they had never taken the life 
of a white man. 

Miss Alice Fletcher writes in a charming strain of the 
Indian's home life. "The consideration of the Indian for the 
feelings of his guest," she says, "is very remarkable. Good 
breeding forbids that the newly arrived guest should be even 
spoken to until he has had time to rest and to collect himself, 
and shows a disposition to oj^en a conversation." Miss Fletcher 
adds that in looking back upon her experience of Indian life, 
"against a background of poverty and rude circumstances 
stands forth a j^icture of unfailing family affection, of faithful- 
ness, of unhesitating hosjoitality and courtesy towards strangers, 
a majesty of demeanor at times, and a sj^irit of happiness and 
contentment that leave little room for ambition or envy.'* 
Catlin wrote that he found the Indian endowed with every feel- 
ing of parental, filial and conjugal affection that is met with in 
more enlightened communities.' One of the earliest glimpses 
we have of the character of the Indians relates to the affection 
and tender feeling which they have for children. In a book 
published in France in 1633 Father Le June tells of a party 
of braves who, while watching a French drummer-boy beat his 
drum in Quebec, pressed more closely around him until tlie 
little fellow struck one of the party in the face with his drum- 
stick so sharply that the blow drew blood. The Indians, much 
offended, went to the interpreter and demanded apologies and 
a present, according to tlieir custom. " No," said the inter- 
preter, "our custom is to punish the offender; we will punish 



220 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

tlie boy in your presence." When the Indians saw the child 
stripped for the flogging tliey began immediately to beg for his 
pardon; but as the soldiers continued their preparations for 
whipping the lad, one of the Indians suddenly stripped himself 
and threw his robe over the boy, crying out, "Scourge me, if 
you choose, but do not strike the boy ! " 

Helen Jackson, in her immortal defence of the Indian, 
"A Century of Dishonor," writing of the charge so often made, 
that the red man will not work, says that of the three hundred 
thousand Indians living in America (not including Alaska) 
one hundred and thirty thousand are self-supporting on their 
own reservations, receiving nothing from the Government 
except interest on their moneys, or annuities granted them in 
-consideration of the cession of their lands to the United States. 
Of the remainder eighty-four thousand are partially supported 
Iby the Government — the interest money due them and their 
annuities as j^rovided by treaty being inadequate to their sub- 
sistence on the reservation where they are confined. In many 
cases, however, these Indians furnish a large part of their 
support, some of them as much as seventy-five per cent. Only 
about thirty-one thousand are entirely supported by the Gov- 
ernment. In 1869 President Grant aj)pointed a commission of 
nine men, representing the influence and philanthropy of six 
leading States, to visit the diflerent Indian reservations and to 
examine all matters appertaining to Indian affairs. In their 
report the commission says: "To assert that the Indian will 
not work is as true as it would be to say that the white man 
will not work. Why should the Indian be expected to plant 
corn, fence lands, build houses, or do anything but get food 
from day to day, when experience has taught him that the 
product of his labor will be seized by the white man to-morrow? 



THE TRUTH ABOUT Til K INDIAN. 



221 



The most industrious white iiiun would become a drone under 
simihir circumstances ; nevertheless, many of the Indians are 
already at work, and furnish ample refutation of the assertion 
that the Indian will not work, and there is no escape from the 
inexorable logic of fact." 

In a recent letter to The Outlook a missionary of the 
American Missionary Association gives a picture of Indian life 
which will cotne as a revelation to the multitudes whose ideas 
about the red man are embraced ^ 

within the narrow limits of 
General Sherman's sarcasm to 
the effect that there is no good 
Indian but a dead Indian : 

" Yesterday I returned from 
Fort Yates, where I had been 
participating with our people 
in their Fourth of July cele- 
bration. I wish you could 
have been with us. I was 
proud of our Indian friends, and 
their quiet, orderly demeanor 
served as a surprise to some of 
their white guests from the Post 
who came to see them celebrate. The Hev. I. H. B. Headley, 
whom you may have known in New York and Boston, and who 
is now an army chaplain at Fort Yates, accepted an invitation to 
attend our Sunday morning service in the booth, July 4th. At 
the close he said to me: 'I wouldn't have missed it for any- 
thing.' The wife of a young army officer wlio was present said : 
' This is a sight I never expected to see. It seems so strange 
to see Indians partaking of the communion, when a few years 




PUPILS FROM THE ARAPAHOE 
SCHOOL, DARLINGTON. 



222 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

ago they were doing anything but that." There were probably 
from seven hundred to a thousand Indians, who were camped 
about the mission in a great circle (as usual) for a week. 
During the time I did not see or hear of any drunkenness, 
rowdyism, or disturbance of any sort. Among those present 
there were only one or two policemen (all the others having 
gone to attend the Catholic celebration at Rock Creek), and 
their services were not needed officially. This was noticed and 
commented on by some of the white visitors from the Post. 
Indeed, some of our guests would have done well to take pat- 
tern after the Indians in quiet, reverent demeanor during the 
Sunday services and the exercises of the morning after the 
addresses were made. Nearly all, if not everything, was 
planned and superintended by the Indians themselves, and they 
certainly deserve much credit for the manner in which they 
celebrated. Even their games in the afternoon, into which 
they entered with enthusiasm, were characterized by the same 
self-control and gentle, manly behavior as the rest. As soon 
as the boys were through with their fun in sending off Roman 
candles (which we all enjoyed with them), the great camp 
quieted at once for the night. Others who looked on during 
the days spent there agreed with me that the same number of 
white people if assembled on such an occasion could not have 
been more quiet and orderly, and we thought would probably 
be less so. Now that our people have come home, they are 
starting out at once upon their haying. Poor things ! I am 
glad I have cast my lot among them, and only wish that I 
might do more." 

One may say that this is only an isolated instance, and 
that the majority of the Indians are hopelessly bad. To this 
charge Rev. Edgerton R. Young has well replied that it is not 



THE TRUTH ABOUT THE INDIAN. m 

fair to point to a few lazy, drunken Indians on the outskirts of 
civilization as specimens of " what the Indian is coming to." 
" If I should take an Indian to show him the best of the whites, 
should I be doing right if I should take him to the saloons and 
drag out some lazy, drunken wretches, or take him to the slums 
and show him the dilapidated specimens of humanity there to 
be found ? No, you would say ; bring your Indian to our 
Christian Endeavor convention ; let him see our bright 
Christian faces; hear our joyous testimonies to the uplifting 
and sustaining power of the gospel, and join in our praises to 
our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ." 

One of the finest tributes to Indian character which has 
come to my notice is an article on the death of Sitting Bull, 
written by Captain John Cussons, whom I have already quoted 
The following extract, it seems to me, forms a fitting close to 
this chapter: 

" The old hero and patriot, Ta-tank-i-ya-tonka, last war- 
chief of the Lacotahs, is dead. 

"The little remnant of his tribe which ungraciously 
refused the ignominy of pauperdoni on a scant reservation of 
their ancient domain will soon be destroyed, and we can take 
possession of their heritage in snug comfort, with none to 
molest or make us afraid. 

"The old chief was at peace. He had accepted the hard 
terms which our superior resources enable us to impose, and 
was living quietly on the reservation. He no longer saw hope 
or future for his beleaguered people. Each effort for their 
deliverance had but multiplied the destructive forces which be- 
set him, and whelmed his followers in yet deeper ruin. 

"On the field, it is true, he had met us and w^ithstood us. 
He had foiled the strategy of our ablest generals ; he had 



224 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

scattered like chaff our troopers in open fight; he had felt in 
full measure all the fury of modern war, all the strength of 
civilization without its mercy, and he had not blanched. 

"But valor, constancy, devotion, were alike unavailing. 
The trend of the age was against him, and the westward 
movement of the nations. Military posts were steadily dotting 
themselves all over his broad land ; lines of railroads were 
cutting his hunting grounds into narrow shreds ; and wherever 
grass grew or rivers ran there would be planted a trenched camp, 
from whence would issue gangs of Yahoos with repeating rifles, 
slaughtering buffaloes for tongue and hide, and wantonly wast- 
ing the subsistence of his people. The effects of age, too, were 
stealing over his limbs. For age is measured by its deeds, and 
his brief seven-and-forty years of civil care and battle toil had 
done the ample work of a full fourscore. 

"And so, worn and weary, he assembled his followers 
about him, and for their sake yielded the ancestral domain to 
the spoiler, and accepted such environment as we were willing 
to 'bestow.' 

" ' A barren heath 
For a broad empire lost.' 

"But there were difficulties in the way. Some of his 
young men rejected the proffered prison-pen, and went forth to 
the free mountains and the high valley lands where the invader 
must meet them on somewhat equal terms. 

"The old chief sent messages demanding their return; 
assured them of the hopelessness of further resistance; and in 
behalf of their women and children insisted that they should 
yield to the enemy and accept the inevitable. 

"The message was received with incredulity and scorn. 
A compact between their honored chief and the false paleface 



THE TRUTH ABOUT THE INDIAN. 225 

was deemed impossible, and the only effect of tlie mission was 
to render the young men more alert against betrayal. For 
tliey trusted their leader with a full-hearted fiith, and would 
not wrong him by a dotibt of his constancy. They loved him 
with a devotion which is accorded only to those who follow 
right: and justice, as it is given them to see it, for its own sole 
sake — the devotion which Lutheran Germany gave to the 
great Gustavus ; the devotion which the 2:>atriot Poles gave to 
Kosciusko; the devotion which the Southerners of our own land 
gave to Robert E. Lee. 

"And they believed he woidd soon join their camps and 
lead them in the deliverance of their own homes from the 
invader. 

"This was the situation last Sunday night, the fourteenth 
of December, in the year of our Redeemer eighteen hundred 
and ninety. 

"The old chief, with his wife and children, were sleeping 
in their lodge on the Reservation in Morton county, Nortli 
Dakota, about thirty miles southw^est of the caj^ital city of 
Bismarck, and within sound of the steamboat whistles of the 
Missouri river. He was virtually a prisoner. He was as com- 
pletely within military power as was Bonaparte at St. Helena. 

"Well, there the old hero sleeps, watched over by a de- 
tachment of semi-nmnicipal cayotes — the offscouring of all 
tribes — a mongrel breed of pimps and apostates, abjects and 
renegades, euphoneously styled the United States Indian 
Police. Meantime a stealthy march of regular troops is being 
made all througii the long hours of that Sabbath night. They 
come from Fort Yates, forty miles aw^ay ; a strongly equipped 
cavalry force, accompanied by light artillery and Gatling guns. 
They are to be at the Reservation at dawn, at which hour tlie 



226 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

police arouse the old chief and arrest him on a charge of 'in- 
tending to leave the Reservation without jDcrmission.' Before 
he has been completely bound and disarmed there comes a cry 
that a body of cavalry is charging down on them. The result 
is easy enough to foresee. There is a scuffle, a struggle to reach 
the horses, a hand-to-hand fight. And in the melee the old 
chief is butchered. 

"With these facts before us, it is an insult to common 
sense to form any other assumption than that the whole busi- 
ness was plotted and mapped out in advance ; that the killing 
of this man was a contrived murder — one of the most atro- 
cious ever committed by any of the brood of Cain. . . 

"Some thirty years ago this slaughtered chief was a dream- 
ing, meditative boy. He joined but little in the sports and 
exercises of his young companions. He was best content when 
listening to the lore of the elders and was deeply absorbed in 
all the traditions that related to his tribe and race. 

"He came of pure Lacotah stock, and was a nephew of 
Mat-to-a-wa-yu, the last hereditary chief of the great Sioux 
nation, a man distinguished for wisdom, moderation and valor. 
At that period the white man, wandering alone, had free range 
of the whole Lacotah territory, and there was no one in the 
tribe who gave warmer welcome to the stranger than tlie gentle 
and thoughtful boy whom we have just cut off 

"There had been a brief period of warfare prior to that 
time, the 'Laramie massacre' we called it; but peace had been 
restored, only to be broken again by successive outrages on the 
part of the whites. 

"But real and abiding troubles came with the Gover::- 
ment agents, who, for the most part, were a set of shamelc-ss 
thieves. It was from these creatures that young * Sitting Bull' 



THE TRUTH ABOUT THE INDIAN. 227 

formed his estimate of the white character, which to him was 
the ejiitome of all that is base and false and vile. And it was 
to his steadfast belief in the utter depravity of our race that all 
his prestige as a prophet must be ascribed. 

" Other chiefs believed our words, and were betrayed. 
This man stood by his fixed conviction that the truth was not 
in us, and for more than twenty years, through all the muta- 
tions of ti-eaty and compact, with their common wreckage of 
broken promises and violated j^l^dg^s, the result in every 
instance avouched the accuracy of his forecast. But he trusted 
us at last, and we foully murdered him.. 

" And now, as a fitting round-up of the whole business, 
and in maintenance of the eternal harmonies, it devolves upon 
us to impugn his motives and revile his name ; to mock the 
' heathen moaning ' of the bereft kindred ; to shove forward 
our Holy Cross ere the desert breezes have laj)ped up his blood, 
and to solace ourselves with the blessed. thought that our sacred 
Scriptures still follow the sword." 




A LADY OF MANILA. 



(229) 




A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN OF THE EAST. 



XVII. 

THE FILIPINOS. 

The modern Filipino is a composite of the Chinese and 
several Polynesian races, " with perhaps a dash of unrecog- 
nized Spanish, English or American blood." The aborigines, 
however, of whom about twenty-five thousand remain, are 
doubtless of pure Malay blood. These are little creatures, not 
so large as the Koreans, averaging considerably less than five 
feet in height, with "limbs as small as those of a ten-year-old 
child. The nose is as flat as the Negro's and the lips as thick, 
and they are almost black, but it is certain that they are not 
Negroes. They have enormous heads of black, frizzly hair, 
and they are j)i'ovided with prehensile toes, by which they 
are enabled to grasp an object with almost as much ease as 
with their hands. They wear little clothing, tattoo themselves, 
have no permanent abode, and subsist chiefly on honey, game 
and wild fruits. Wars drove them to take refuge in the least 
accessible parts of the island, though a few still inhabit the low- 
lands, and are often found living in houses built upon piles 
above water after the manner of the Dyaks. They are mon- 
ogamous and capable of intellectual development to a remark- 
able degree. It is said that those who have been captured as 
children and brought up amidst civilization, have developed 
all the characteristics proportionate to the refinement with which 
they were invested. 

The only trace of resemblance between the aborigines and 

(231) 



232 THE BBIOHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

the Filipinos of Manila is in the curious meeting of the eye- 
brows over the nose. This is particularly noticeable among the 
women, who are otherwise very attractive in appearance, with 
their plump figures, and magnificent hair often falling to their 
ankles ; though, as some one has said, their habit of " washing 
the aforesaid hair in unfragrant cocoanut oil and of chew- 
in o- the blood-red betelnut is conducive to admiration at a 
distance." 

The natives of the Philippines, like other members of the 
Malay race, have long had the rejDutation of being cruel and 
bloodthirsty — a reputation which has come to them on account 
of the ravages of Malay pirates. An educated Filipino, Kamon 
Reyes Lala, in his book on the Philippine Islands, very per- 
tinently asks why the outrages and rapacity of Malay pirates 
should be taken as indicative of the Malay character any more 
than the atrocities of the Caucasian corsair are taken as indica- 
tive of Caucasian character. The Filipinos are subject to ter- 
rible fits of temper, during which they seek to slay everything 
in their path; but these outbursts are infrequent, and, as a 
rule, they are quiet and not easily moved to anger. They are 
always brave, and they know how to be loyal to an animating 
principle. 

The most noticeable trait of the Filipinos, especially of the 
Tagalaogs, who inhabit Luzon, and who are by far the most 
numerous and most intelligent of the population, is their im- 
pressive demeanor and imperturbable bearing. The Filipinos 
are stoics. This accounts for their remarkable coolness in mo- 
ments of danger, and their intrepid bearing against overwhelm- 
ing odds. They never bewail a misfortune, and they have no 
fear of death. When a misfortune comes they merely attribute 
it to fate and calmly go about their business. Travelers usually 




NATIVE GIRLS OF LUZON. 



(233) 



THE FILIPINOS. 235 

regard them as lacking in sympathy for the misfortunes of 
others, but it is not so much a want of fellow-feeling as a sense 
of resignation. Their fatalism saves them many a bitter pang. 
Mr. Lala says that while they are not noted for foresight and 
energy, their indolence is due chiefly to the enervating climate. 
The most energetic foreigners find, after spending a little while 
in the Philippines, that they are unable to shake ofiP the lassi- 
tude created by the heat. Another secret of their indolence is 
to be found in the fact that, being deprived by the Spaniards of 
all active participation in the affairs of the government and 
robbed of all fruits of industry, all incentive to advancement 
and 2)rogress was taken away. They have yielded with com- 
posure to the crushing conditions of their environment, pre- 
feri-ing the lazy pleasures of indolence rather than labor for the 
benefit of their oppressors. Recent events, adds Mr. Lala, 
show that, given the stimulant of hope, there is power in them 
yet to dare and achieve. 

The characteristic virtue of the Filipinos is their family 
affection. They are very fond of their children, who, as a rule, 
are respectful and well-behaved. It has been noticed that such 
noisy little hoodlums as adorn EurojDean and American cities 
are conspicuously absent from Manila. The Filipinos are also 
noted for their reverence for parents. The old are tenderly 
cared for and venerated. They are not only faithful in caring 
for their parents, but in almost every well-to-do household 
there are jDOor relatives, who, " while mere hangers on, are 
nevertheless made welcome to the table of their host." Hospi- 
tality prevails everywhere, A guest is always welcome, and 
welcome to the best. The people, especially among the better 
class, embrace every opportunity to feast their friends and the 
stranger within their gates. 

J8 



236 



THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



The Filipinos are sober and always clean. Mr. McQueen, 
in an article in the National Magazine, says that they are for- 
ever washing their bodies and their vestments. The same writer 
also notes the remarkable courage and endurance of the Philip- 
pine soldiers. They suffer and die like heroes. The women 




A CAVITE MAIDEN, 



are far more industrious than the men, and also more cheerful 
and devout. 

Everywhere the people have a passion for music. Pro- 
prietors of large estates have taken advantage of this passion, 
and it is not an uncommon thing for a brass band to be found 
in the field discoursing music before the laborers gathering the 
rice plant. 



THE FILIPINOS. 237 

In some of the provinces of Luzon the natives of the 
farming chiss have received an elementary education, while 
those who have had the means and aspired to better instruction 
have attended the schools of America and Europe. The 
natives of Luzon have ever been known as kind-hearted, hos- 
pitable and easily led, though they are very sujDerstitious. A 
recent writer says that there are a number of Filipinos, chiefly 
half-breeds, at Manila and other places in Luzon, who might 
be capable of self-government under safe and competent leaders, 
but he doubts if such would exceed half of the population of 
the whole island. 




ESKIMO MOTHER AND CHILD. 



(239) 



XVIII. 



THE GENTLE ESKIMOS. 



To most mi lids 
the term Eskimo 
suij:o;ests dirt. It 
must be admitted 
that there is ground 
for the suggestion, 
but it should be 
remembered that 
ill their aversion to 
the bath the Es- 
kimos have the 
hearty sympathy 
of all who have had 
a taste of their cli- 
mate. Moreover, 
if they are strang- 
ers to that comfort- 
able state which is 
said to be next to 
godliness, they are 
by no means with- 
out distill sruishiuQ- 
virtues. A notable trait is their hospitnlity to strangers. They 
are exceedingly cordial in welcoming the newcomer, nnd are fond 

(t>41) 




IN GREENLAND'S ICY MOUNTAINS. 



242 



THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



of sliowiiig their good-will by crying " good-cheer," and, when 
permitted, by rubbing noses with each other. Their kindness 
to one another is even more noticeable. Love for one's neigh- 
bor is a fundamental law among them. If one hunter has 
better success during the summer than liis companions, and 
obtains a larger quantity of meat than he will need for his own 
family during the winter, he never conceals the surplus, but 
gladly divides it with others, taking j)i"ide in distributing 

it among those whose eyes 
are not asJigen, or whose 
arms are not as strong as 
his own. It is a rule among 
many of the tribes that any 
game which a hunter does 
not take home, but leaves 
at a convenient point and 
covers it with stones for pos- 
sible use in future, may be 
taken by any other member 
of the tribe. Indeed, it 
may be said that they really 
have no knowledge of the 
principle of private owner- 
ship of property, and that they practically hold all interests in 
common. Nansen says that when he first went among them they 
would often take articles from his party, not realizing that they 
were doing wrong. When Nansen protested they at once ceased, 
and ever afterwards he was able to rely upon their honesty, 
though, as he says, " it was plain to see that they were intelli- 
gent enough to perceive the injustice of our holding them to 
strict account while we were taking possession of their land 





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1, 



ESKIMO TYPE. 



THE GENTLE ESKIMOS. 



243 



without their j^erpiission and without compensation, and kill- 
ing the reindeer, which would have been useful to them for 
food." 

The Eskimos are remarkable for their quiet and gentle 
manners and their dislike for disturbance or discord. They 
are so gentle that they really do not know how to quarrel, and 
when there is a misunderstanding it is always a very tame 
affair. If two persons have 
a disagreement, they never 
think of talking loudly or 
calling each other disagree- 
able names, but simply turn 
their backs and each goes his 
own way. 

■All explorers testify that 
the Eskimos rarely tell a 
falsehood, and when they de- 
part from the truth at all it 
is never from malice. They 
rarely ever attempt to deceive 
one of their own race, though 
it is a hardship for them to 
tell a truth which they know will be disagreeable, and they 
employ all kinds of subterfuges to avoid the unpleasant 
duty. 

One would suppose that a people situated as they are, 
compelled to fight a hard battle for life and always in constant 
danger of suffering for want of food, would be very serious, if 
not unhappy; on tliQ contrary, they are always bubbling over 
with good spirits, nearly always laughing and always ready 
with an amusing witticism or an absurd joke. It would be 




AN ESKIMO OF LABRADOR. 



244 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

difficult to find a people who are better satisfied with their lot 
in life. 

The fondness of the Eskimo parents for their children is 
very beautiful. Nansen says that the children are rarely 
punished, but that they are so thoroughly good-natured that 
punishment is seldom needed. It is exceedingly rare for the 
little ones to quarrel or fight, and they have never been known 
to call each other ugly names or to use abusive language in 
any way. They are very sweet and cunning in their ways, if 
not in their persons; in short, as some one has said, they are " a 
lot of dirty angels." 

The Eskimos are remarkable for their devotion to their 
homes and their pride in their ice-bound country. It is safe 
to say that no other people love their native land or their 
homestead quite so well as they. The few that have visited 
foreign lands have invariably become seriously homesick, and 
would run any risk to get back again. " Do you see the ice ? 
Do you see the ice?" was the longing cry of one of them who 
was returning from Europe ill unto death as he approached 
his native land. 









?i 







"-^^ 



\ 




-.-\ 



OROUP OF PARSEE LADIES. 



XIX. 

HINDU TRAITS. 

An intelligent American lady in India wrote me a few 
days ago that she had been living among the Hindus for five 
years, "and if there was any good in them she had never dis- 
covered it." Good Bishop Heber wrote of these same people 
that " as a race they are sober, dutiful to their parents, and 
affectionate to their children, and of tempers almost uniformly 
patient and gentle, and easily affected by kindness and atten- 
tion to their wants and feelings." As I sat a moment ago 
weighing these two statements, my eye fell upon this sentence, 
which may partially reconcile them : " Within the limits of 
the vast empire of Hindustan we find man in every stage of 
civilization, from the philosopher who reasons calmly and 
piously on the nature of God, on the universe, on man's con- 
dition here and hereafter, down to the cannibal savage, to whom 
God and every spiritual substance is unknown ; so there is no 
degree of cruelty, no excess of vice, no hard-hearted profligacy, 
no ineffable abomination of which we cannot find examples 
among the Hindus ; neither is there, on the other hand, any 
height of virtue which they have not reached." 

Mr. Clements Markham, who traveled extensively in India, 
especially among the villages and out-of-the-way places, insists 
that whatever may be said of the inhabitants of the great 
towns, the country people are as a rule singularly temperate, 
chaste, honest, peaceful, docile, easily governed and patient. 

(245) 



246 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Bishop Heber also describes the country people as a mild, pleas- 
ing, intelligent race, sober and, where an object is held out to 
them, industrious and persevering. " There is," says Dr. 
Robert Brown, " if not some palliation for, yet an explanation 
of their duplicity and want of^Teracity, which amounts almost 
to excuse. Theirs is a country which has been conquered and 
reconquered by successful and despotic rulers who have ground 
down the people. The defence of the weak has always been 
duplicity and flattery ; and accordingly nations which have 
been frequently conquered and governed by an iron-handed 
series of rulers, especially if of an alien nation, have invariably 
developed two classes which combine to make up the majority 
of the population, viz.: a substratum who avoid the wrath of 
the conqueror by artifice and duplicity, and who in time be- 
come by the transmission of the acquired instinct a race of 
hereditar jr liars ; and the other division — generally found among 
the higher classes — who maintain their place by flattering and 
cringing to the conquerors." 

It has been frequently charged that the Hindus have no 
gratitude. It is true that their language contains no word to 
express the feeling of gratitude, but those who know them best 
agree that, if they have not the word for it, they are not wholly 
lacking in the substance. The Bev. Charles Acland, in his 
popular account of the manners and customs of India, tells a 
story in point: "When we are going to travel," he writes, 
" we pay the money for the bearers into the hands of the 
postmasters beforehand ; he then orders the men to be ready 
at each stage, and he subsequently sends them their pay. At 
one stage, as I was going to Midnapore, some time ago, the men 
complained to me that they had not received their money for 
many months. I questioned them, and finding their story 




A HIGH CASTE BRAHMIN GIRL. (--IT) 



HINDU TRAITS. 



249 



probable I promised to speak to the postmaster, and also of- 
fered to carry a petition from them to him. This I did. There 
had been a fault somewhere, but not, I believe, with the post- 
master; however, the poor men got their money. Since that 
time, whenever I go along the road, as soon as I come to that 
place a man calls out : * Here is the kind Sahib that took our 
letter for us,' and al- 
thouoh the sta2;e is ten 
miles in length, yet they 
carry me over it in less 
time than it takes me to 
go a six-mile stage else- 
where. My palkee is a 
heavy one, but they lit- 
erally run as fast as they 
can the whole way, and 
two additional men al- 
ways go with them with- 
out asking for pay." 

The Hindus are 
also accused by the ma- 
jority of travelers of 
being extremely dishon- 
est. In reply to this K <«■ .. -saL.,,-^- - < ...rj 

Acland 




BURMESE WOMAN. 



charge Mr 

says : " This also I deny ; although their treatment by in- 
dividuals is enough to make them so. ... I would not 
hesitate if it were necessary to entrust a thousand rupees to a 
servant to take to Calcutta ; that is for him a fifteen days' 
journey ; yet if he chose he might easily get beyond reach ; 
and such a sum would be sufficient to purchase an estate which 



250 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

would render himself and his descendants landed proprietors 
and gentlemen. I doubt if you could say more than that for 
English honesty ; although, of course, there may be exceptions 
here as well as there." 

Mr. Acland writes that after leaving Jelesore he remem- 
bered that he had omitted to lock his tin traveling boxes. 
There were many valuable things in them, and when he reached 
the first stage they had not then come up ; yet he proceeded 
day after day for a hundred and fifty miles without the slightest 
uneasiness. These boxes passed through the hands of sixteen 
men successively, all of the poorest class, and they all came to 
hand the day after he reached his destination. Mr. Acland 
says that he would not have felt so easy had this occurred in 
England. 

The Bengalees are the bravest of all Asiatics. They are 
famous for stratagem, and display remarkable patience and cool- 
ness, although they are not regarded as patriotic- They are 
deeply attached to their homes, and although noted for the shed- 
ding of blood by their rulers, they are not individually cruel. 
Gordon McCauley, after describing the vices of the Bengalees, 
says that they do not lack a certain kind of courage which is often 
wanting among the better classes. They are sometimes found 
to possess a fortitude such as the stoics attribute to their ideal 
sage. " A European warrior, who rushes on a patrol of cannon 
with a loud hurrah, will sometimes shriek under the surgeon's 
knife, and fall in an agony of despair at the sentence of death. 
But the Bengalee who would see his country overrun, his house 
laid in ashes, his children murdered or dishonored, without 
having the spirit to strike one blow, has yet been known to en- 
dure torture with the firmness of Mucins, and to mount the 



HINDU TRAITS. 253 

scaffold \vitli the steady step and even pulse of Algernon 
Sidney." 

The Parsees inculcate respectable living, and strenuously 
insist upon a careful fulfillment of one's promises, industry, 
humanity even towards animals, and blamelessness in thought, 
word and deed. 

The Parsees are the most interesting people of northern 
India. They are followers of Zoroaster, who lived twelve hun- 
dred years before Christ, and their religion has few of the 
revolting elements which characterize most heathen religions. 
The pojjular notion that they are fire worshippers is not exactly 
true. They do not worship the sun as God ; they only insist 
that in worshipping God one should fix his gaze upon some 
one of the wonderful things that God has made. The sun, 
fire, w^ater, etc., are not gods, but in them they see God revealed. 
This idea, says Dr. Francis E. Clark, lies at the root of their 
burial practices. They cannot put bodies in the ground accord- 
ing to their notion, or else the ground would be defiled. They 
cannot burn them, for fire is a sacred element. They cannot 
throw them into the river, for the water would be desecrated. 
But the vultures, being unclean birds, can dispose of the dead 
bodies without defiling land, water or fire. 

Like other Oriental peoples, the Hindus are noted for 
hospitality. Hunter tells a story of a man belonging to one of 
the miserable low castes who are attached to the Kandh ham- 
lets, wdio killed the son of a village 23atriarch and fled. Two 
years afterw^ards he suddenly rushed one night into the house 
of the bereaved fathei-. The indignant patriarch with difii- 
culty held his liand from the trembling wretch, and convened 
a council of the tribe to know^ how he might lawfully take 
revenge ; but the assembly decided that however grievously the 



264 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

refugee had wronged his host, he was now his guest, and must 
be kept by him in comfort and unharmed. The Kev. D. T. 
Van Horn, a missionary in India, writes that in the villages 
the people are exceedingly hospitable, often insisting upon fur- 
nishing him with food for himself and his horse free of charge, 
while in some places they offer to pay him for telling them 
about Christ. Mr. Van Horn says the longer he lives among 
the Hindus the more he loves them, and that their childlike 
sympathy draws out his heart towards them. He adds that in 
sorrow they will sympathize with you ; in trouble they are 
ever ready to lend a helping hand, and in the sick-room they 
are invaluable, and nurse the patient as tenderly as a mother 
nurses a babe. Mrs. E. M. Bacon, another missionary, writing 
to the author in a similar strain, tells the story of a highly 
educated Hindu teacher who, on learning of the illness of the 
wife of a foreign gentleman, went to his house and insisted on 
remaining with him through the night and administering to 
the dying woman. 

When a Hindu is converted to Christianity his zeal knows 
no bounds. Miss Lillian E. Marks, of Ajmere, India, writes 
of a noted Bible reader who is from morning till night besieged 
by a starving multitude. This Bible woman receives only 
$2.00 a month. "I wondered," writes Miss Marks, " why the 
poor came over there while she had so little for them, but in 
the evening when she cooked her food I was enlightened. Her 
own daily allowance of food was cooked with that of the other 
members of the family, but I found that she did not eat it. 
Quietly, when no one w^as looking, she slipped her share out of 
the house and gave it to the four starving ones sitting at the 
door. I found on investigation that she was only eating one 
small meal a day in order that she might feed them." 




CEYLONESE GIRLS. 



(255) 



HINDU TRAITS. 257 

Miss Marks also writes of another noble woman whom the 
love of God has changed into a saint : " She is Allied with a 
burning zeal for the souls of her sisters, and day after day she 
travels about from village to village in an ox-cart preaching 
the gospel. I have been with her often on her tours. If we 
had to pass through any village without stopping, ' Caroline 
Maunna ' would always say, ' Oh, Miss lahib, let us stop here. 
There may be many people liere who have never heard of Jesus, 
and I am getting old and I may not pass this way again.' 
Every morning she was up at three and four o'clock to read 
her Bible, that she might get a message for the day. Her 
life was one that any Christian might copy with profit to his 
souL" 

One of the most curious customs amono; the Hindus is 
to set apart an apartment in the house called the chamber of 
anger, in which any member of the family who happens to be 
in a bad temper shuts himself up until he has recovered his 
usual equanimity. The other members of the family are thus 
undisturbed by the irritabilify of the angry person, and the 
head of the house knows immediately by looking into the 
chamber of anger whether everything is going straight with 
his household or not. 

Many of the religious ideas of the Hindus, if not in ac- 
cordance with our own, at least challenge our respect for their 
consistency. To the Hindu all life is sacred — the life of beast, 
bird, reptile and even insect, as well as of man. In accordance 
with this idea they have established hospitals for animals. The 
hospital for animals in Bombay is one of the great institutions 
of the city. " Here," says Dr. H. M. Field, " in an enclosure 
covering many acres, in sheds or stables or in open grounds, 
as may be best to promote their recovery, are gathered the 



258 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

lame, the halt and the blind, not of the human species, but of 
the animal world — cattle, horses, sheep and goats, dogs and 
cats, rabbits and monkeys, and beasts and birds of every de- 
scri]3tion. Even poor little monkeys forgot to be merry and 
looked very solemn as they stood on their perch. The cows, 
sacred as they were, were yet not beyond the power of disease, 
aikl had a most woe-begone look. Long rows of stables were 
filled with broken-down horses, spavined and ringboned, with 
ribs sticking out of their sides, or huge sores on their flanks 
and drij)ping with blood. In one pen Avere a number of kit- 
tens that mewed and cried for their mothers, though they had 
a plentiful supply of milk for their jDoor, emaciated bodies. 
The Hindus send out carts at niglit and jDick them up wher- 
ever they have been cast into the street. Kabbits, which no 
man would own, have here snug warrens made for them and 
creep in and out with a feeling of safety and comfort. In a 
large enclosure were a hundred dogs more wretched looking 
than the dogs of Constantinople — ' whelps and curs of low 
degree.' These poor creatures had been so long the com- 
panions of man that, ill-treated as they were, starved and 
kicked, they still apparently longed for human society, and as 
soon as they saw us they seemed to recognize us as their de- 
liverers, and set up a howling and yelling, and leaped against 
the bars of their prison house, as if imploring us to give them 
liberty .... While walking through these grounds in com- 
pany with a couple of missionaries, I saw how much better 
these animals were cared for than some men. I Avas thinking 
of some of our broken-down ministers at home who, after serv- 
ing their people faithfully for a Avhole generation, are at last 
sent adrift, like an old horse turned out by the roadside to 
die." 



HINDU TRAITS. 261 

After dwelling upon the dark side of Hindu life, Dr. 
Field Siiys: "But I do not sit in judgment on the Hindu, nor 
include the whole people in one general condemnation. Some 
of them are as noble specimens of manhood, with as much 
'natural goodness' as can be found anywhere, and are even 
very religious in their way, and in zeal and devotion an ex- 
ample to their Christian neighbors." Of this he gives a very 
striking instance in a grand old Hindu, the Maharajah of 
Benares, whom he visited in his castle on the Ganges. The 
Maharajah of Benares is a member of the Viceroy's council at 
Calcutta, and is held in universal respect by the English com- 
munity. "Sir William Muir, who is one of the most pro- 
nounced Christian men in India, whom some would even call 
a Puritan for his strictness, told me that the Maharajah was 
one of the best of men." And yet he is one of the straitest 
sect of the Hindus, who bathes in the Ganges every morning, 
and in all religious services is most exemplary, even spending 
hours in prayer. " How this earnest faith," adds Dr. Field, 
"in a religion so vile can consist with a life so pure and so good 
is one of the mysteries of this Asiatic world which I leave to 
those wiser than I am to explain." 

In concluding an account of his visit to India, the same 
writer says: "The last night we were in Calcutta it was my 
privilege to address the students at one of the Scotch colleges. 
The hall was crowded, and I have seldom if ever spoken to a 
finer body of young men. These young Bengalees had, many 
of them, heads of an almost classical beauty; and, with their 
grace of person heightened by their flowing white robes, they 
presented a beautiful array of young scholars such as might 
delight the eyes of any instructor who should have to teach 
them 'divine philosophy.' My heart went out to them very 

14 



262 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

warmly, and as that was my last impression of India, I left it 
with a very different feeling from that with which I entered it 
— with a degree of respect for its people and of interest in them 
which I humbly conceive is the very first condition of doing 
them any good." 

When we think of India the mind hovers about the black 
hole of Calcutta, and in that awful chasm sees only the darker 
side of Hindu character. I would that we might look away 
now and then and let the eye rest ujDon the Taj — that wonder- 
ful monument that tells the story of the brighter side. Of this 
marvelous structure Dr. Talmage has given us a brilliant 
description. 

"In a journey around the world," he writes, " it may not 
be easy to tell the exact point which divides the pilgrimage 
into halves. But there was one structure toward which we 
were all the time traveling, and having seen that we felt that 
if we saw nothing more our expedition would be a success. 
That one object was the Taj of India. It is the crown of the 
whole earth. The spirits of architecture met to enthrone a 
king, and the spirit of the Parthenon at Athens was there; 
and the s|)irit of St. Sophia of Constantinople was there; and 
the spirit of St. Isaac of St. Petersburg was there; and the 
spirit of the Baptistery of Pisa was there; and the spirit of the 
Great Pyramid and of the Luxor obelisk, and of the Porcelain 
tower of Nankin, and of St. Mark's of Venice, and the spirits 
of all the great towers, great cathedrals, great mausoleums, 
great sarcophagi, great capitols for the living, and of great 
necropolises for the dead were there. And the presiding 
genius of the throng, with gavel of Parian marble, smote the 
table of Russian malachite, and called the throng of spirits to 
order, and called for a vote as to which spirit should wear the 




A HINDU LADY. 



(263) 



mNDU TRAITS. 265 

chief crown, and mount the chief throne, and wave the chief 
sceptre, and by unanimous acclaim the cry was: 'Long live 
the sj^irit of the Taj, king of all the spirits of architecture! 
Thine is the Taj Mahal of India!' 

" The building is about six miles from Agra, and as we 
rode out in the early dawn we heard nothing but the hoofs and 
wheels that pulled and turned us along the road, at every yard 
of which our expectation rose until we had some thought that 
we might be disappointed at the first glimpse, as some say they 
were disappointed. But how anyone can be disappointed with 
the Taj is almost as great a wonder to me as the Taj itself. 
There are some people always disappointed, and who knows 
but that having entered heaven they may criticise the archi- 
tecture of the Temple, and the cut of the white robes, and say 
that the River of Life is not quite up to their expectations, and 
that the white horses on which the conquerors ride seem a little 
springhalt, or spavined! 

"My son said: 'There it is!' I said: 'Where?' For 
that which he saw to be the building seemed to me to be more 
like the morning cloud blushing under the stare of the rising- 
sun. It seemed not so much built up from earth as let down 
from heaven. Fortunately you stop at an elaborated gateway 
of red sandstone one-eighth of a mile from the Taj, an entrance 
so high, so arched, so graceful, so four-domed, so painted and 
chiseled and scrolled that you come very gradually upon the 
Taj, which structure is enough to intoxicate the eye, and stun 
the imagination, and entrance the soul. We go up the wind- 
ing stairs of this majestic entrance of the gateway, and buy a. 
few pictures, and examine a few curios, and from it look off 
upon the Taj, and descend from the pavement to the garden 
that rap)tures everything between the gateway and the ecstasy 



266 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

of marble and precious stones. You pass along a deep stream 
of water, in which all manner of brilliant fins swirl and float. 
There are eighty-four fountains that spout and bend and arch 
themselves to fall in showers of pearl in basins of snowy white- 
ness. Beds of all imaginable flora greet the nostril before they 
do the eye, and seem to roll in waves of color as you advance 
toward the vision you are soon to have of what human "genius 
did when it did its best: moon-flowers, lilacs, marigolds, tulips, 
and almost everywhere the lotus; thickets of bewildering 
bloom ; on either side trees from many lands bend their arbor- 
escence over your head, or seem with convoluted branches to 
reach out their arms toward you in welcome. On and on you 
go amid tamarind, and cypress, and poplar, and oleander, and 
yew, and sycamore, and banyan, and palm, and trees of such 
novel branch, and leaf, and girth, you cease to ask their name 
or nativity. As you approach the door of the Taj one experi- 
ences a strange sensation of awe, and tenderness, and humility, 
and worship. The building is only a grave, but what a grave! 
Built for a queen who, according to some, was very good ; and, 
according to others, was very bad. I choose to think she was 
very good. At any rate, it makes me feel better to think that 
this commemorative pile was set up for the immortalization of 
virtue rather than vice. The Taj is a mountain of white 
marble, but never such walls faced each other with exquisite- 
ness ; never such a tomb was cut out from block of alabaster ; 
never such congregation of precious stones brightened, and 
gloomed, and blazed, and chastened, and glorified a building 
since sculptor's chisel cut its first curve, or painter's pencil 
traced its first figure, or mason's plumb-line measured its first 
wall, or architect's compass swept its first circle. 

"The Taj has sixteen great arched windows, four at each 




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HINDU TRAITS. 269 

corner. Also at each of tlie four corners of the Taj stands a 
minaret one hundred and thirty-seven feet high. Also at each 
side of this building is a splendid mosque of red sandstone. 
Two hundred and fifty years has the Taj stood, and yet not a 
wall has cracked, nor a mosaic loosened, nor an arch sagged, 
nor a panel dulled. The storms of two hundred and fifty 
winters have not marred, nor the heats of two hundred and 
fifty summers disintegrated a marble. There is no story of 
age written by mosses on its white surface. Montaz, the queen, 
was beautiful, and Shah Jehan, the king, here proposed to let 
all the centuries of time know it. She was married at twenty 
years of age and died at twenty-nine. Her life ended as 
another life began; as the rose bloomed the rosebush perished. 
To adorn this dormitory of the dead, at the command of the 
king, Bagdad sent to this building its cornelian, and Ceylon its 
lapis-lazuli, and the Punjab its jasper, and Persia its amethyst, 
and Thibet its turquoise, and Lanka its sapjDhire, and Yemen 
its agate, and Punah its diamonds, and bloodstones, and sardo- 
nyx, and chalcedony, and moss agates are as common as though 
they were pebbles. You find one spray of vine beset with eighty 
and another with one hundred stones. Twenty thousand men 
w^ere twenty years in building it, and although the labor was 
slave labor, and not paid for, the building cost what would be 
about $60,000,000 of our American money. Some of the 
jewels have been picked out of the wall by iconoclasts or con- 
querors, and substitutes of less value have taken their places; 
but the vines, the traceries, the arabesques, the spandrels, the 
entablatures are so wondrous that you feel like 'dating the rest 
of your life from the day you first saw them. In letters of 
black marble the whole of the Koran is spelled out in and on 
this august pile. The king sleeps in the tomb beside the 



270 THE BBI9HT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

queen, although he intended to build a palace as black as this 
was white on the opposite side of the river for himself to sleep 
in. Indeed, the foundation for such a necropolis of black 
marble is still there, and from the white to the black temple of 
the dead a bridge was to cross; but the son dethroned him and 
imprisoned him, and it is wonderful that the king had any 
place at all in which to be buried. Instead of windows to let 
in the light upon the two tombs, there is a trellis-work of 
marble, marble cut so delicately thin that the sun shines 
through it as easily as through glass. Look the world over 
and you find no such translucency, canopies, traceries, lace- 
work, embroideries of stone." 




PRINCESS KAPURTHALA. (371; 




r.Y Taul Sinai;alui 



DAUGHTER OF THE RAJAH. 



XX 

A HINDU SCHOLAR'S VIEW OF INDIA. 

G. L. Shakur Doss, a highly educated Hindu and a nota- 
ble convert to Christianity, in a letter to the author presents 
some observations which deserve to be quoted at length. 

"India," says Mr. Doss, "is a changing country. Its 
characteristic traits are not altogether what they were a century 
ago. Old influences are abating and vanishing. New character 
is being formed, and we should judge India accordingly. Look 
and see that there are at least three great forces casting their 
influence upon India in this age. The first is the old force of 
book relisfion of the Hindus and Mohammedans which still 
holds full sway over the minds of India's millions. The second 
great power is the English literature. The third mighty 
force is Christianity. The old religious beliefs and practices 
are entirely separate from morality, and not necessarily joined 
as in Christianity. The influence of the English literature 
is mainly on the intellect. Christianity alone has to contend 
with the idolatry and immorality of the country. Each of these 
powers produces effects peculiar to its nature. It is worth 
wliile now to show how far each has succeeded in its efforts, and 
this will enable us to form an estimate of Indian character. 

"In the first place, the Indian heathenism with its estab- 
lished superstition and learning is still a great factor in keep- 
ing up the old religious character of its devotees. The Hindus 
are the most religious people in the world. Keligion pervades 

(273) 



274 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

their domestic, social, political, agricultural and mercantile 
duties. Nothing is done without some religious ceremony for 
it. This can be ascertained from the daily life of a Hindu, and 
also from Mann's Dharm Shaster. I would refer the English 
reader to Sir Monier William's 'Religious Thoughts and Life in 
India.' If this nation were converted to Christianity it would 
be or rather ought to be a very religious community of the 
Christian Church. In the scale of religious civilization this 
trait of Hindu character would be a most beautiful trait for 
Christianity to work upon. 

" In spite of the old established and still existing supersti- 
tion and learning of India and the influence they have had in 
moulding the character of its people, the British rule and the 
English literature have created a new life in India. The British 
rule has rightly suppressed the brutal rites and customs of the 
people — such as widow-burning, suicide before the idol Jugger- 
naut and infanticide. The English literature has almost trans- 
formed India by bringing into its possession a vast amount of 
literary wealth, and by quickening its mind to see what is 
erroneous and what is wanting in the Indian literature. 

" And what do you think is the result ? The Indian mind 
had, no doubt, made great and original achievements in its own 
way, but the additional influence of Western culture is ena- 
bling the people to rise to higher character and to a higher 
order of usefulness in the world. In this respect certainly the 
English do not think that there is ' nothing in the heathen to 
begin with, and that therefore our efforts to educate thein are 
useless.' And they are consistent in their dealings with their 
Indian subjects. They teach and train them and then trust 
them, and thus practically admit that the Indians are trust- 
worthy as well as intelligent. In days gone by the Govern- 




A BURMESE GIRL OF RANGOON. 



(275) 



A HINDU SCHOLAR'S VIEW OF INDIA. 277 

meiit used to regard their natural ability and acquired knowl- 
edge with no little mistrust ; but of late the mistake has been 
seen, and a more generous policy has been adopted. Native 
gentlemen of intelligence and ability have been raised to 
responsible posts, and as magistrates, judges, professors and 
engineers they have proved equal to the responsibilities laid 
upon them. Education has found the Indian mind very con- 
genial for its advancement, and it is making great strides all 
over India. India is getting filled with University graduates, 
and even at this early stage private efforts are being made by 
the Hindus, Mohammedans and Sikhs for starting independent 
schools and colleges. Such a state of things shows very plainly 
that the people of India possess intellectuah character equal to 
that of any Western }>eople. In an article on the 'Influence 
of English Literature upon India' Rev. John Hewlett, M. A., 
missionary at Benares, writes that ' the English literary achieve- 
ments of the Eev. K. M. Banerja, D. L., author of Dialogues 
on the Hindu Philosophy, of the Rev. Lol Behari Day, author 
of Govindo Shamanta, of Mr. Ram Chander Bose, M. A., 
author of two works, one on the orthodox and one on the 
heterodox sects of Hinduism, and of Dr. Rajendra Lai Jlitra, 
author of works (especially his Indo Argaus), which throw 
vast light on the history, character and names of his country- 
men, prove that Indians are capable of receiving such power- 
ful mental illumination fvom English literature as to make 
them most wise instructors of their countrymen." Again, in 
the same article he says that " the medical and legal professions 
have been very popular from the adornment they have received 
from able native gentlemen, highly trained in English. It is 
well known that a large number of Indian gentlemen have 
been qualified by their enlightened English education to become 



278 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

distinguished officers of the Government, showing remarkable 
wisdom and impartiality on the bench and great energy and 
zeal at administrative posts. So that the Western light poured 
upon India through the schools, colleges and universities has 
already created an intellectual awakening full of bright prom- 
ise , for that great country's future." {Ind. Evang. Review, 
July, 1890.) Ten years have passed over since these words 
were written, and, as far as my information goes, this awakening 
has gone far and wide into the countrj^ since. In Lahore, the 
capital of the Punjab, there are now five colleges, viz.: Gov- 
ernment College, Mission College, Islamia College, Anglo 
Vedic College, and Chiefs' College. There is a college at Am- 
ritsar, one Mission College at Scalkot and one at Rawalpindi. 
I would also add that the English arts, sciences and manners 
are practically breaking down the power of the Hindu caste 
system more than any other agency in India. In short, Eng- 
lish literature is not only influencing the intellect, but it is also 
bringing about social changes, such as the education of women, 
the remarriage of widows, adoption of new occupations, and 
abandonment of idolatry, caste and child-marriage. Such a 
capability of intellectual, moral and social improvement is in 
itself quite sufficient to change the conviction of the Americans, 
and enable them to see that there is a great deal in the heathen 
of India to begin with. 

" The third force which is exercising an influence on the 
moral and religious tone of India heathenism is Christianity. 
Buddhism and Mohammedism in their days exerted their in- 
fluence over India, and moulded the character of the people 
after their peculiarities, but they are stationary now. The special 
traits of character formed by them have in turn to be re- 
modelled by the high and holy influence of Christianity. This 




"Ji.ff^' if" •'< 





* 



A HINDU SCHOLAR'S VIEW OF INDIA. 281 

is a thing for which all the good people of the whole Christendom 
feel very much concerned. Now Christianity preaches a change 
of character — regeneration — and change of religion without 
any compromise. It advances its morality instead of the In- 
dian's and its God and Saviour for the gods and gurus of India. 
In other words, its aim is to drive away the very soul of Indian 
heathenism, which renders it the most difficult of all undertak- 
ings, but the difficuhy is not insurmountable, as is evident by 
the advances it has already made on heathenism. 

" Leaving aside the divisions and subdivisions of the In- 
dian people into castes, races and religions, there are found in 
the present age two grand divisions : the educated classes and 
tlie io;norant masses. The chai-acteristic of the educated class 
is that it is increasing, and educated young men in India are 
growing up without any religion. They are losing respect for 
their old religions and Christianity is not very clear to them. 
For, after reading the scientific dreams of Darwin, Huxley and 
Tyndall, history turned into fiction by Renan and Strauss, the 
Religious Thoughts of Parker, and the pantheism of Hegel 
and a host of other such Western wiiters, they form the con- 
viction that educated men in Europe and America are ashamed 
of Christianity as decidedly as educated men in India are 
ashamed of Hinduism. But, of course, they are striving to the 
best of their knowledge and ability to serve God outside of 
Christianity. 

"Again, those missionaries who are fit for working among 
the masses only when they come in contact with the edu- 
cated Indians have peculiar difficulties to encounter, and the 
best thing they can do to screen their inability is to depreciate 
the parts of the educated Indians by saying that 'there is 
nothing in the heathen to begin with.' Inferior preachers, 



282 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

whether European or native, cannot command their respect, or 
explain the Ciiristian truth in a convincing and edifying man- 
ner to this class of people. Moreover, the schemes and opera- 
tions of some missions ignore their very existence. There are 
missionaries appointed as managers of mission schools and col- 
leges and as preachers for villages, but none are separated to 
reach and preach to the class under consideration, as Barnabas 
and Saul were separated for the work among the Gentiles. It 
should be borne in mind that the Bible instruction given in 
mission schools and colleges can be only superficial, and by far 
the great majority of educated heathens from Government, 
Hindu and Mohammedan colleges remain entire strangers to 
Christianity — so much so that this class of people need to be 
preached to as much as the ignorant masses. Now, if amidst 
such a state of things many have been saved from this class by 
the efforts of good Christian preachers, whether European or 
native, all efforts to save the heathen must be worth while. 

''As to the ignorant millions of Hindus and Mohammedans 
the partial efforts of the missionaries for them have not been 
of much avail. They have willingly allowed and even forced 
their sons to take to education, which has produced a genera- 
tion of which we have already spoken. But they themselves 
are still strangers to education or Christianity, and heathenism, 
with all its virtues and vices, is the character of this innumer- 
able mass. It may be said of such peo23le that ' if our gospel 
is veiled, it is veiled to them that are perishing' (2 Cor. iv. 3). 
But still this would in no wise justify retiring from the field, 
as it would simply be a suicidal policy. Bemember that the 
educated and intelligent are not only dissatisfied with the 
idolatries of the masses, but are also influencing the masses 
against the old customs. 



A HINDU SCHOLAR'S VIEW OF INDIA. 



283 



*' Hitherto I have stated some general features of the 
Indian character and the forces that are influencing it, and 
have touched upon the character of the heathen only. But 
there is a new class of people called Christians. They are the 
outcome of the Christian efforts in India. Some of them are 
from the higher and educated classes, though most of them are 
from the low caste people, very poor and more ignorant than 
the Hindu and Mohammedan 
masses. According to Gov- 
ernment Census Report the 
population of India at the end 
of 1890 was 279,684,203, and 
the numerical strength of Pro- 
testant native Christians was 
559,061. This new class is 
beino; formed of incono-ruous 
characters, and whether they 
fulfil them or not the people 
come under new conditions on 
their becoming Christians. The 
missionaries, finding it perhaps 
hard to overcome the Hindu 
and Mohammedan masses, 

turned to these low castes of the country, and on finding it easy 
to baptize them they became more eager for number than for 
quality. It is difficult to give a description of the two kinds 
of people that are forming the Indian Christian society, and 
therefore it is better to describe them separately. 

"The Christians from the higher and educated classes are 
not behind their heathen brethren in attainments and intelli- 
gence in all the provinces of India. In proportion to their 




A YOUNO GIRL OF INDIA. 



284 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HTIMANITY. 

number they are keeping pace with Hindus and Mohammedans 
in obtaining university degrees. Like the uneducated heathen 
parents, the uneducated Cliristian parents do their utmost to 
get their sons and daughters educated. Their superiority, 
however, consists in the moral and religious tone of their char- 
acter. As a rule idolatry, street prostitution, polygamy (the 
common sins of Hindus and Mohammedans), enforced widow- 
hood, non-education of women (the social evil of Hinduism) 
have been totally abandoned. Though some drink, yet drunk- 
enness is not characteristic of Indian Christians. Of course, 
temptations to it are strong from the side of Hindus as well as 
Europeans. But these vices are no longer the vices of Indian 
Christians. There are of course the negative aspects of the 
Indian Christian morality, and the positive aspects are not 
so conspicuous, such as having good or self-denying philan- 
thropy, truthfulness in all its bearings, treatment of subordi- 
nates, independence of thought, acting from principle, and 
energy. 

"The introduction of Christianity and English literature, 
as I have already intimated, has produced great convulsions in 
India. The Hindus and Mohammedans naturally felt bound to 
preserve their religions and customs against these foreign in- 
vaders, and in this case it would be simply doing justice to my 
native Christian brethren to speak of their zeal, wisdom and 
firmnesss who have adopted aggressive and defensive measures 
for the Christian religion even more than the missionaries. I 
Avould give a few names and incidents out of many in the 
Punjab which have come under my personal experience and 
observation. 

"The late Mr. G. Lewis, a graduate of the Calcutta Uni- 
versity and an Indian Christian, adorned the responsible post 




A HINDU PRINCE. 



(285) 



A HINDU SCHOLAR'S VIEW OF INDIA. 287 

of a division judge. He was admired for his Cliristian char- 
acter by the Christians, both European and native. He aided 
the missions by his purse, and was respected by the Hindus 
and Mohammedans for his honesty and impartiality as a judge. 
His death has been a great loss to the Christian community. 

"The late Mr. Abdullo Athim, a scholar in English,. 
Persian and Arabic languages, was a convert from Mohammed- 
anism. He was an extra-assistant Commissioner in the service 
of the Government. Besides doing his official duty honestly 
and diligently, he was famous for his zeal for the Christian 
cause in India. He was a prolific author. He wrote and pub- 
lished religious books and tracts at his own expense. Toward 
the latter part of his life, after he had retired from Government 
service, when his head was silvery, his constitution weak and 
his voice low, he proved himself a Christian hero. The no- 
torious Mohammedan, Lufi Mirza Gulane Ahmad, of Ladian 
(Punjab), who claims to be an inspired prophet, challenged 
Mr. Athim to a public discussion on the divinity of Christ, 
the atonement of Christ and the perfection and supremacy of 
the Bible. The old veteran accepted the challenge, and the 
time for the discussion was fixed. Christians and Mohammed- 
ans and Hindus were present to hear the discussion, which was 
held at Amritsar from the 22d of May to the 5th of June, 1893. 
There was an excitement in the country over this discussion. 
The Hindus were anxious to see the Christians win. On the 
last day the vanquished opponent uttered curses against the 
mild, but strong and steady Christian champion, that he 
should die on the 5th of September of the next year. But to 
his surprise the good old man survived more than a year after 
the cursed day. The whole conduct of this Christian hero 
affected a great many of Lufi's followers, and some left him 



288 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

and became Christians, and at the same time saved the country 
from the spreading of a seditious sect. The writer took a share 
in the discussion, and, seeing Mr. Athim physically and men- 
tally weak at the time, several times asked him to retire and 
give him the floor, but he would not do so. His death was 
another heavy loss to the Christian community. I would like 
to add that there was not a single European gentleman or a 
foreign missionary who took part in the discussion. The 
occasion reminded me very much of a discussion on the Bible 
between Dr. Joseph Berg and Mr. Joseph Parker, of England, 
about half a century ago. 

"A considerable list of Mohammedan converts can be given 
who are as shining lights in the country, and have written 
well for the benefit of their Mohammedan countrymen. Among 
these can be mentioned Eev. Imadrid Din, D. D., in the C. M. 
S. Amritsar, and the late Molvi Lafdar Ali. The former is an 
author of several books and tracts on Mohammedanism, and has 
written a commentary on several books of the New Testament. 
He is considered a pillar in the church by the Church Mis- 
sionary Society. 

" Let us have now a few instances of converts from Hin- 
duism. The first I would mention is Rev. Tora Chand, of the 
Church Missionary Society at Ajmere. He is an able man 
and a writer of several devotional books. He is highly 
respected by the missionaries. Mr. Chandu Lol, a Govern- 
ment pensioner, was head master of the government school at 
Lahore. He has been all along a devoted Christian, and shows a 
great earnestness in the mission cause. He does not depend upon 
the missions for his support. His sons are holding responsi- 
ble posts in the Government service. One is an extra-assistant 
Commissioner, and one is an assistant engineer. Mr. Chandu 



A HINDU SCHOLAR'S VIEW OF INDIA. 



289 



is known to me personally, and he is one of those earnest Chris- 
tians who long to see their countrymen come to Christ. 

" The late Professor Kum Cliandar, Director of Public In- 




TAMIL GIRL PICKING TEA. 



yft 



struction in Patiala State, was a thoroughly educated man. He 
was a convert from Hinduism. His love for Christianity and 
sympathy for the Mohammedans moved him to leave two liter- 

15 



290 THE BBIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

ary monuments for their benefit. One is called ' Ijaz-i-quran ' 
(Quran Refuted) , and one is ' Tahrif Quran ' (Quran Interpo- 
lated) . Probably the Hindus were not so offensive in his days 
as the Mohammedans. 

'' If the reader will pardon what may be denounced as 
egotism, I will refer to a few incidents in my own missionai-y 
life, which extends to a period of twenty-five years. Being a 
convert from Brahmanism, I lost all love for its religious sys- 
tem, though not for the people. As soon as I was through 
with my theological course with the late Rev. J. P. McKee, of 
Jamestown (America), I found that there was only one man — 
the above-mentioned Rev. Imadrid Din, of Amritsar, who oc- 
cupied the Christian field against a host of Mohammedan con- 
troversialists. This turned my attention toward the Mohammed- 
ans, and aggressive and defensive measures were adopted on 
new grounds. I commenced my attack on Islam ; ' Quran not 
needed ' was my theme. For nearly two years the discussion 
was carried on in the jDapers. Sometimes I was opposed by 
half a dozen molvees at a time. When the discussion was over 
the Rev. E. M. Wherry, D. D., of A. P. Mission, published 
the whole matter in book form. Its second edition is now be- 
fore the public. My attacks on Islam were renewed on another 
new basis, viz.: ' The Character of Christ and Mohammed.' 
Perhaps the people of America are not aware how risky it is 
to attack Mohammed and his Quran. I was warned and threat- 
ened by Mohammedans in Pasrur, Jhang and Gujranwala to 
stop such writing. Those of Gujranwala were followers of the 
Mirza Gulam Ahmad of Qoquin, whose great book Barahin 
Ahmadia I had refuted in a ' Review on Barahin Ahmadia,' 
and two of them are employed in the American U. P. Mission 
School. I had to face such threats in 1895-96, the time when 



A HINDU SCHOLAR'S VIEW OF INDIA. 293 

the U. P. missionaries were determined to ruin me and had 
forced me to go to law. In the meantime I had not forgotten 
the Hindus. The Aryan sect published tracts against Chris- 
tianity, some of which led me to write for their benefit an 
elaborate tract on the ' Origin of Vedic Religion.' The Hindus 
and Mohammedans, unable to make original attacks on the Bible, 
have been wide awake all over India to stuff their brains with 
the blasphemies of Payne and Bradlaugh and the mystic 
theory of Strauss and Penan. Rationalism in Europe is the 
mother of modern Rationalism in India. ' Everything spirit- 
ual is a myth, and conscience alone is the law and the law- 
giver ! ' Such became the new feature of Brahmaism among 
Hindus and naturalism among the Mohammedans. Sir Lynd 
Ahmad Khan became a leader of the latter. My love and 
zeal for Christianity would not let me remain neutral to these 
civilized heresies, and to the best of my ability I faced Sir Lynd 
and some of the Brahmas, and the outcome was my two treat- 
ises against these theories. One is called 'Vindication of the 
Miraculous Birth of Christ' and the other 'Philosophy of 
Revelation.' All are in the Verdu language. Besides these 
I have written and published several other books and tracts in 
defence of our holy religion. In these days I am writing a 
commentary on Matthew's Gospel for Indian readers, and it is 
nearly ready for the press. During my trials and difficulties 
in 1895-96 my Hindu friends in Gujranwala, namely, INIunshi 
Jwan Keshan Pleader and Kirpa Rain, sanitary inspector, and 
several others urged me to retrace my steps to Hinduism, as I 
had seen enough of Christianity in the life of these missiona- 
ries. My plain and prompt answer was that I am a Christian 
because I follow Christ, and not because I follow the missiona- 
ries. 



294 TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

" I would now like to give you a few incidents of living 
Indian martyrs. Mr. Gopot Chand is a convert from Hin- 
duism. Love of truth moved him toward Christianity, and he 
had the moral courage to leave his parents and other relations 
and receive baptism from the Kev. W. W. HarjDer, of the 
Church of Scotland Mission at Sealkote. His baptism precipi- 
tated many trials and troubles. He was forced to Hardwar to 
be purified with the Ganges water. His body they washed 
over with that water, but his heart was in Christ, and on his 
return he went back to the missionary. He had to go straight 
through the trial alone, as there was no other Christian to help 
him. Some time afterwards distress stared him in the face, but 
his faith never wavered, and he remained as firm as ever. He 
has now joined the order of Plymouth Brethren, and is 
working as a clerk in the executive engineer's oifice, Guj- 
ranwala. 

" Mr. Didar Lino- is a verv valuable man in the Church of 
Scotland Mission, Gujerat (Punjab). He belongs to a very 
high family of Sikh Lardars. He was brought to Christ by 
the loving efforts of the Scotch missionaries. After baptism he 
was i^ersecuted by his friends and relatives, who got the police 
to arrest him. By perseverance in his trials he is a Christian 
to-day, and is a useful member of the Church of Scotland. His 
faith and character are having an edifying influence on the 
heathen public. 

"In addition to the above-mentioned notable Indian Chris- 
tians, I am glad to say that our graduates and under-graduates 
are filling responsible posts in Government service, such as 
Bae Mayer Doss, and others ; and some are professors in mis- 
sion and Government colleges; for instance, Mr. M. Meeker Jee, 
B. A., in Forman Christian at Lahore, and Mr. Golakhnath 



A HINDU SCHOLAR'S VIEW OF INDIA. 295 

Chatterjie, B. A., in Government College, who graduated in 
England. Others are pleaders and barristers. 

"I would mention one more trait of character of the high 
class converts. As a rule, there is no caste system among them. 
They have reached the truth that social order does not rest on 
the reputed natural inequality of men. ' It is not birth which 
ennobles. Men are great only through their faith, virtue and 
piety.' They have got to respect human nature, though these 
virtues be absent. This is evident from their mixing freely 
among the low caste people and from the intermarriages of 
Hindu and Mohammedan converts. 

"All of the above facts show that in a short period and in 
a country like India Christianity has made remarkable and 
lasting changes, and efforts to save the heathen have ]3roved 
useful. In short, the Indian Christians from higher classes have 
tried, are trying, and will try to better and improve their mental 
and moral propensities, and to be bouyant in social status with 
the civilized races." 

Mr. Doss does not think highly of the mission work 
among the lower classes. 



XXI. 

BRAZILIAN BONHOMIE. 

The Brazilians are a generous, whole-souled folk. In 
hospitality they are not equaled by any other American people, 
and are surpassed only by the Orientals. One may travel in 
Brazil for months without paying a penny for his entertain- 
ment. Everywhere 23eoi3le open their doors as well as their 
hearts, and the traveler is sure not only of a cordial welcome, 
but of the best room, the best bed, and the best of everything 
that is to be had. The host can never have too many guests, 
and the guests can never wear their welcome out. Miss Kuhl 
writes that while traveling with a party of seventeen she met 
a man who insisted on entertaining the entire party at his 
own house and at his own expense. The Bev. G. Bickerstaff, 
of Castro, says that their generosity is unequaled. He has 
traveled much over the prairies and through the forests, stop- 
ping over night at the houses of Catholics, and never has he 
been made otherwise than welcome, nor was he ever expected 
to pay anything for his entertainment. The hospitality of the 
people flourishes in spite of the fact that it is constantly abused. 
The land swarms with respectable beggars, who spend their 
lives visiting friends. Mr. Bickerstaff mentions one who wore 
good clothes and rode a good horse, the gift of friends, who 
spent his whole time visiting, stopping a month or two at a 
house. 

The Brazilians delight in helping one another. While they 

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298 TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

have few public charities, tiieir individual charities are a legion. 
They delight in seeking out the poor and needy and in visiting 
the sick, and there are among the converts to Christianity 
many devout women who spend a large part of their time in 
going from house to house to lend a helping hand wherever it 
is needed. The motherly instinct is largely developed in 
Brazilian women, and not content with raising large families, 
they are glad to receive into their homes the orphans of their 
deceased friends and relatives. There are hardly any orphan 
asylums in Brazil, for the reason that most of the homes of the 
people are private orphan asylums. In this they have excelled 
all other peoples. "One charming Brazilian woman," writes 
Miss Kuhl, "who brought four pupils to our boarding school, 
told me that she had reared seventeen children. Seven of 
them were married, and to each of these she had given an outfit 
and a wedding feast." Miss Kuhl tells of another couple who 
raised quite as many orphans, not only caring for them while 
they were children, but giving them an education as they grew 
up and helping them to start in life after they were married. 

The Brazilians also have a higher sense of honor than is 
common among Latin races. The Bev. S. L. Ginsburg writes 
that a native helper was so poor that he often went without 
a meal; yet when he was entrusted with thousands of dollars 
belonging to the church which Mr. Ginsburg represents his 
accounts always balanced to a penny. Mr. Ginsburg says that 
he could cite many other instances of this sort. The converted 
Brazilians can be absolutely trusted. Indeed, there are no 
better Christians. " To my mind," says Mr. Bickerstaff, whom 
we have quoted, "true nobility of character does not consist 
merely in the ability to rise occasionally to heroic deeds, but 
reveals itself in a consistent Christian life of growth in grace; 



BRAZILIAN BONHOMIE. 299 

in the persistence with which one ' climbs upward, working out 
the beast, and lets the ape and tiger die ; ' fighting to the death 
one's own evil passions and inclinations and bearing the petty 
annoyances of everyday life, not with stoical indifference, but 
with patience and charity for Christ's sweet sake." Mr. Bick- 
erstafp says that judged by this standard there are many noble 
examples of Christian character in Brazil. The hardest thing 
for a Brazilian to do is to forgive an injury or an insult, yet 
Mr. Bickerstaff recalls many instances of patience and charity 
under trying circumstances which have come under his obser- 
vation. One of his converts was accused of divertins; the 
finances of the church to his own private use. The man was 
innocent, but instead of losing his temper he patiently waited 
under the charge until the opportunity came to present proof 
of his innocence. Bev. F. C. Taylor, of Bahia, relates many 
instances to illustrate the piety and zeal of the Brazilian 
Christians. Some of these instances remind one of the early 
days of Christianity. An old man was lying upon his bed 
paralyzed and his mind almost entirely obscured. Several of 
his friends stood over him and asked if he recognized them, 
but he only shook his head. "Why," said one, "have you 
forgotten Jesus, Brother Taylor, Brother Samuel, John Baptist, 
and all?" He looked up and said: "Taylor I don't know, 
Samuel I don't know, but Jesus, yes, I know him; he is my 
Saviour." 

It is not an ordinary mother who, in addition to the 
responsibility of her own large family, will gladly take upon 
herself the burden of raising a dead friend's children, and oiie 
is prepared to believe the statement that has been made, that 
there are no people who are more devoted to their mothei's 
than the Brazilians. It is not unusual for a vouno; man to 



300 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

turn over nearly all of his salary to his mother. Mr. Ginsburg 
tells of a young man employed in the general post-office in his 
city who, when the rumor became apj^arent that the end of the 
world was at hand, ran away from his place, leaving a note 
behind him saying that he wanted to die in the arms of his 
mother. The Brazilians have some very beautiful family 
customs. One of these is the evening salutation. When the 
candles are lighted while the family is sitting at the dinner 
table, the children rise and, bidding each other good-night, 
kiss the hands of their parents and ask for a blessing. The 
children kiss the hands of their parents morning and night, 
and when meeting after an absence, the father pronounces 
his blessing upon them. In passing a church a Brazilian will 
usually raise his hat. This is not done for superstition, but 
as a delicate expression of religious sentiment. This same 
delicacy of feeling leads them to raise their hats when a funeral 
procession is passing. 




BOOKER T. \A^ASHINGTON. 



(301) 



XXII. 

THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 

Ijst a forgotten corner of an obscure library I came, the other 
day, upon a collection of books which thirty years ago were held 
in great esteem for the light which they were supposed to shed 
upon the freedmen, as the Negro people were then called. It 
occurred to me as I took up my pen that if I should set down 
at the head of this chapter the titles of certain of these volumes 
— after the manner of the painstaking reviewer — there are 
older readers who would find in the memories which they 
would awaken much to account for the chaotic state of mind 
which we are now in concerning the colored man and his prob- 
lems. But one does not enjoy recalling the early follies of 
one's mind any more than one enjoys being reminded of those 
early follies which are committed in absence of mind ; and to 
name these books at the present day would be a little less than 
cruel to those of us who were once accustomed to swear by 
them. The older reader will understand ; if the younger does 
not may I be forgiven for explaining that, with the exception 
of a few geographical and racial terms, there is nothing in 
these books to indicate the particular branch of the human 
family with which they are concerned. There are character 
delineations in them, to be sure — silhouettes by flying tourists, 
sketches by overheated reconstructionists, half-length portraits 
by missionary schoolma'ams — but most of them are of that 
obliging type which leaves the matter of resemblance to each 

(303) 



304 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

individual imagination, wliile the only speaking likenesses are 
those which speak through their labels. 

It was not a serious matter thirty years ago. Indeed, I am 
not sure but that the mist of ignorance which then obscured 
the Negro served a merciful purpose — as mists have often done 
in hidiuo- from us difficulties which we did not have the cour- 
aoe to face. Zealous as were the friends of the freedmen in 

a 

those first years of missionary effort, it is a question whether 
they would have had the heart to enter upon the task at all if 
they had fully realized its magnitude. The pressing need at 
the beginning was money ; and so long as there was enthusiasm 
the money flowed whether or no. But time has cooled our 
ardor and brought us into a new state of mind concerning the 
Negro ; and the mist which was once his protection has become 
his peril. Time was when the friends of the Negro were con- 
tent with o;ivino- and the entire direction of affairs was left to 
the men who were on the field ; now the man who has a dollar 
to offer has a policy to present with it. Strangely enough, this 
change has been heralded as a happy omen ; but when the 
stockholders of a cotton-mill who have never been at pains to 
learn the difference between a spindle and a loom grow dissat- 
isfied with the way things are going, and undertake to say what 
the mill needs, and how the work must be done, it is not 
usually regarded as a happy omen. And this is precisely the 
peril which to-day threatens the Negro people. All the dis- 
couraging conditions which exist in the North concerning the 
colored man and his problems— the growing sense of disap- 
pointment in his progress ; the disposition to demand of him a 
harvest without regard to the sowing ; the decline of faith in 
his future; the increasing desire to eliminate him from current 
thought; the fickleness of patronage, which to-day leans toward 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 305 

the higher education, to-morrow toward industrial training, the 
next day toward individual benevolence, and the next is with- 
drawn in disgust — all these conditions exist because, for several 
years past, the American people have undertaken to decide all 
questions relating to the future of the race, without taking the 
pains to learn anything of the race as it is. If the j)resent 
unmistakable decline of interest in the Negro is to be arrested, 
if the confusion as to his needs is to be cleared up, if we ever 
expect to set ourselves to the solution of any one of his prob- 
lems, it is high time we were making some serious effort to 
acquaint ourselves with his present condition and tendencies. 

At the end of a third of a century of unparalleled investi- 
gation, experiment and discussion, the most striking fact about 
the Negro problem is still the scarcity of facts which are avail- 
able about the Negro himself Not that there has been no 
progress. We have learned a great deal about individual 
Neojroes who stand well out in front of their race. We have 
accumulated an immense heap of material concerning the ex- 
ternal features of the dark mass in the background. But of 
the real constitution of that mass we are almost as ignorant as 
we were at the beginning. The average Negro has never been 
portrayed, except in silhouette. We see him as a shadow on 
the wall. AVe know the size of his brain, but we do not know 
what he thinks. We know that he is emotional, but we do not 
know what he feels. We know the dimensions of the space 
he occupies in the world, but we are still in doubt as to the part 
he actually plays in it. We know his rights, and many of his 
wrongs, but we have yet to learn what he knows or cares about 
either. In a word, whatever may be the future value of the 
material that has been gathered as a contribution to the solu- 
tion of the Negro problem, our present knowledge of the 



306 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Negro is a knowledge of characteristics rather than of charac- 
ter, of persons rather than of personality. We have been 
coasting Africa with a kodak and studying the problems of the 
interior by the aid of the views we have been taking. 

The Negro is still very provoking. At times he provokes 
us to good works ; at other times he provokes a smile ; at all 
times he provokes us to great extravagance of speech. A 
calm, sane word concerning him seems almost impossible of ut- 
terance. He provokes our feelings rather than our thoughts, 
and when we are sure that we have at last arrived at a cool 
judgment, lo ! it is a fierce conviction. We never look upon 
him except in a glamour, or a mist, or a coat of paint. We 
never see him as a man, but as a colored man ; and as if he were 
not colored enough, we must color him over again according to 
our individual fancy. We never put him in a cold, white light 
and look him over in the ordinary way, as an ordinary being; 
we think of him in superlatives, and he is always extraordi- 
nary — to one, extraordinarily good or bright ; to another, ex- 
traordinarily bad or dull. He exhausts our figures of speech. 
If we compare him to a dog — as some of us are seldom ashamed 
of doing — we never think of him as a plain, everyday dog 
of ordinary virtues or vices, but as an extraordinarily bad dog 
who richly deserves his bad name and all the kicks that go 
with it; or else an extraordinarily persecuted dog, whose ap- 
pealing looks prompt us to stoop and pat him on the head, and 
tell him he is the dearest little doggie in the world, and how 
mean people are to treat him so, and how he should go right 
along and bite the last one of them that dares to interfere Avith 
him. 

The comparatively indifferent attitude of the Negro toward 
the recent war with Spain provoked the usual fusillade of super- 



THE AMERICAN NEORO. 307 

latives by which we periodically advertise our continued de- 
termination to view the colored people only in a colored light. 
From one side came a storm of unconscionable abuse. The 
Negro is unpatriotic, cowardly, ungrateful, selfish, said the 
newspapers. He has forgotten the rock from whence he was 
hewn. He is not sensible of the obligation which rests upon 
one who has been emancipated to turn and lend a hand in the 
work of emancipation. He has no ear for the cry of even his 
own people in Cuba. He is utterly disappointing — and all 
that. From the opposite side a small battery managed to make 
quite as much noise in the Negro's defence. This side as- 
sumed that the colored people have determined not to fight, and 
commended them for it. " They are learning some sense," as 
one editor put it. They have awakened to the fact that this 
country is against them, and they don't propose to raise a 
finger in its defence. They realize that they have nothing 
to fight for but themselves. They are under no obligations 
to the Government that despises their rights — and more of 
that sort. 

If the Negro was really a dog, no doubt he would be able 
to appreciate the motives of the sentimentalist who stoops to 
pat him on the head and assure him that he is learning some 
sense, and that if he is a wise dog he will save his teeth for his 
own use. But being only a man, and for the most part a very 
ordinary, dull man, he does not understand. It is true there 
are members of the race here and there of canine disposition 
who have shown a fondness for such treatment, but the ordi- 
nary, decent Negro is of the opinion that he would rather be 
soundly kicked on general principles than patted on the head 
and commended for a meanness which he has never contem- 
plated. All that has been said in the newspapers to the con- 



// 



308 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

trarj, the colored people of the South are not engaged in 
"learning some sense'' concerning their relations to the Govern- 
ment under which they live. They have not resolved to have 
nothing to do with wars because the Government has failed to 
secure them their rights under the law. They have not con- 
cluded that they are under no obligations to the Government 
which gave them their freedom. They have not decided to 
stay at home because they are unwilling to fight under white 
officers. And they are not in a bad humor over the alleged 
discovery that they are a people without a country. 

It is one of the misfortunes ofi the Negro people that they are 
advertised by a press which is not authorized to represent them. 
The Negro newspapers, with few notable exceptions, are in no 
sense representative of the colored people. They neither make 
nor reflect public opinion. The white people of the South never 
think of holding the black race responsible for the sentiments 
of its editors. It is clearly understood that these men are not 
as a rule leaders of their race ; they are indeed jealous of the 
real leaders, and are constantly making trouble for them. The 
average Negro editor is a small politician, distinguished among 
his people chiefly for abundant leisure and bumptiousness. He 
started in life with the idea that the chief business before him 
was to make men respect him, and he has devoted himself so 
exclusively to this task that he has failed to do anything to 
make himself worthy of respect. He patronizes the ignorant 
masses beneath him, and reflects upon the cultured few above 
him. The real leader who, like Booker Washington, secures 
unusual applause from the whites, comes in for his deepest 
sneer. His motto is friction between the races. He is not 
held in esteem by his people — even by those whom he suc- 
ceeds in controlling. Obviously, it is a gross injustice to these 



THE AMERICAN NEGEO. 309 

people to regard the editorial utterances of such a man as 
reflecting their sentiments. 

It is not denied that the masses of colored people were 
indifferent toward the late war, but there is no necessity of 
seekino; a sensational reason for their indifference. If we can 
bi'ing ourselves to think of them as ordinary people, there will 
be no lack of ordinary reasons. It was not noticed that the 
class of white people who are nearest the Negro's material level 
showed more interest in the war than the Negro; but no one, 
I believe, has suggested that the ignorant class of whites have 
a grudge against their country, or that they are in a bad humor 
over the discovery that they have no country to fight for. The 
notion that the colored people resolved to stay at home because 
they felt that the country was against them is only an editorial 
fiction. The great mass of colored people have no clear con- 
ception of " country." Their ideas are local. They think of 
individuals, not of nations. They have never learned to spread 
out their loves and hates over a large area. They do not gen- 
eralize. They have no grudge against society. They lose no 
sleep over national wrongs. They do not worry themselves 
over their position as a race. Among the most intelligent 
class of Negroes there is a conviction that the colored man does 
not receive his dues, but they have come to the conclusion that 
it is not a matter to be remedied by keeping it before their 
j^eople. The worthy leaders of the race are now striving to 
turn the thoughts of their peo23le away from their real and 
supposed wrongs, and are assuring them that the best way to 
secure their rights is to lose sio-ht of them in an all-absorbing 
effort to do right. 

It must be admitted that the masses of colored people are 
not patriotic; but that is not more si2;nificant than the fact that 

16 



310 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

multitudes of white people are not patriotic either. This end 
of the century is not the patriotic end. We have electricity — 
and else. We do not depend wholly upon patriotism to make 
an army; we count on the war fever, the love of adventure, 
the witchery of epaulets, sneers for those who stay at home, 
the hard sense of duty, and the like. The Negro's lack of 
patriotism does not account for his staying at home. The 
colored people are lacking in cool courage; but they are more 
easily influenced than the whites, and it can hardly be doubted 
that if the same amount of influence that had been used by 
designing men to keep them at home had been used to induce 
them to go, they would have responded quite as freely as our 
own people. 

The intelligent class of Southerners before whom the 
colored people have come in and gone out for a quarter of a 
millennium have yet to discover any signs of the alleged change 
which they have undergone in their feelings toward the Gov- 
ernment that gave them their freedom. The colored editor's 
reiteration that the Negro has at last come into a mood not to 
be trifled with, and that if this country does not redeem its 
.pledges to him "something is going to drop," is pure campaign 
matter. The Negro's crimes are against persons and property, 
not against governments. The race is loaded down with Indi- 
vid aal criminals, but not with men who keep their brains 
fevered with dangerous isms. The Negro problem is serious 
enough; let us not add to it an imaginary problem. It has 
long been a comforting thought with those who know the 
Negro best that, whatever may be his future, he will never 
thrust upon America the problem of a degenerate, anarchistic, 
foreign horde. 

The subject of Negro crime has excited more interest than 



THE AMERICAN NEOBO. 311 

any other problem since the present tide of indifference toward 
the colored race set in. Yet, when one comes to think of it, our 
interest has centered in statistics rather than in conditions. 
We have been content to count the criminals as they pass on 
the way to the gallows or the penitentiary instead of going to 
find where they came from. We know something of their ante- 
cedent conditions — we know that the Negro was once a savage, 
then a slave, then a child cut suddenly loose from his mother's 
apronstrings, and thrust out into the very maelstrom of 
temptation; and we know that these things are sufficient to 
account for almost any criminal showing the race may make. 
But of present conditions we have learned little — partly, per- 
haps, because the recollection of these antecedent conditions, 
have put us out of heart. We are satisfied as to what prepared 
the way for the present, and we have preferred not to pursue 
or to press the matter further. I want to show what, as it 
seems to me, needs so much to be shown just now — that the 
present conditions are not so discouraging as is popularly sup- 
posed. Negro crime is a formidable fact, but it is not a dis- 
heartening fact, and this, I think, may be made clear here by 
a glance at that part of the black mass where the criminal con- 
ditions are at the worst. 

I should be glad if I could fortify, or at least dignify what 
I am about to set down by assembling here on the threshold 
an array of statistics which would indicate the comjDarative 
criminality of the Negro. But no such statistics are to be had. 
We have a mass of figures from court and prison records, but 
that is quite another matter. There are several reasons why 
statistics of this sort cannot be relied upon for definite conclu- 
sions as to crime in general ; there are several additional reasons 
why they cannot speak definitely as to Negro crime in par- 



312 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

ticular. Prison records are not necessarily criminal records. 
There are hundreds of Negroes in our State prisons who are 
not criminals. A few are there, doubtless, because they hap- 
pened to be Negroes. More are there because they happened 
to be j^oor — a fact usually overlooked by sentimentalists who 
are given to insisting that most of the Negro's misfortunes are 
due to his color. It has happened to the penniless Negro as it 
has happened to the penniless white man since time began. 
In this world an innocent man, white or black, is likely to get 
justice — if he first gets a capable lawyer. Many others are in 
prison for crimes actually committed who, nevertheless, are not 
distinctly criminal. These are confined for petty theft — a 
species of lawlessness which in the ex-slave seems to be little 
more than an inherited weakness. Many a Negro who has a 
mania for laying cunning hands on things which do not belong 
to him could not be persuaded to lay violent hands on anything 
whatever. He yields to the temptation to steal a pig much as 
a poor white devil yields to the temptation to quench an in- 
herited thirst for strong drink — confessing that he is wrong, 
but assuring himself that he cannot help it, and that he really 
means no harm to anybody. But if all the Negroes that are 
confined in State prisons were actual criminals the prison 
figures would not tell the whole truth. There are many colored 
criminals at large who owe their liberty to the disposition of 
the low mass of the race to screen its lawless element from 
justice. The number is of course unknown, but every police 
ofiicial knows that when a fugitive from justice succeeds in 
putting himself under the protection of a female friend in the 
black quarter of a Southern city, he is about as far out of the 
reach of the law as a criminal ever succeeds in getting in this 
life. Negro men will not undertake to protect or rescue one of 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 313 

tlieir number from the law except when under the influence of 
mob excitement, but there is scarcely a woman in the unde- 
veloped mass who will not risk her all to shield from arrest any 
relative or friend who may solicit her protection. 

It is useless to attempt to get an intelligent notion of 
Negro criminality until one has first rid his mind utterly of the 
remarkable theory, now much exploited, that the Negro is 
criminal as a race. It ought to count for something that this 
notion did not originate among the people who have had per- 
sonal relations with the race for the last quarter of a millennium^ 
Southern people are in the habit of regarding the undeveloped 
mass of Negroes as a horde of petty thieves, and, in conse- 
quence, monumental liars ; but it is safe to say that the only 
Southerners who are disposed to favor the notion that the 
Negro race is a criminal race never had any but unsympathetic 
relations with the colored people. The theory that the race was 
always criminal, and that during the drowsy days of slavery 
this criminality was latent, betrays the fine hand of a foreign 
student who has never known the Negro save as a subject for 
scientific investigation. Whatever conclusions may be drawn / 
from the statistics, there is not a particle ^of evidence from 
experience to support this idea of latent criminality. The race ' 
came to its freedom with overheated blood, but its blood was 
not overheated by inherited malevolence. There is possibly a 
good deal of latent badness in us all, but there is no more to ' 
prove that the blacks are criminal as a race than there is to // / 
prove that the whites are criminal as a race. The Negro has 
a great deal to overcome, but he has not yet been cast into the \ \ \ 
sea with a millstone of degeneracy about his neck. The greater 
part of the mass is bestial and lawless, but it is not distinctly 
criminal. The criminal element in the race is larger than ours, 



314 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

and owing to the prevalence of petty lawlessness and the free 
mixing habits of the mass it is not always easily distinguished, 
but it is none the less a distinct element. 

In the best class of colored people — the cultured handful 
at the top of the race — the temptations to crime are probably as 
small as in the highest class of whites. They have more heat 
in the blood than the whites, but they live in a much narrower 
S23here, and therefore have fewer opportunities for wrong-doing. 
This class is made up chiefly of the house-servants (and their 
descendants) of the best white families of slavery days — which 
means that they have had superior moral training; and they 
are further protected by a social barrier which they have 
erected between themselves and the degraded mass of the race. 
Beneath this cultured handful is another class — a double hand- 
ful of worthy, striving people of j^ractically the same origin, 
but of inferior ability and fortune. This class is as yet poorly 
protected by social barriers, yet it rarely furnishes criminals — 
partly because it has had sufficient contact with the superior 
civilization to catch the true meaning of life and character, and 
partly because it is consumed by an ambition to be worthy. 
This striving class is surrounded by a much larger element 
that is striving just as hard, but with a very different motive. 
The larger element is recruited from the great mass of " plan- 
tation darkies" — Negroes who were raised in the "quarters" at 
a distance from the "great house," in sight of, but never in 
contact with the white civilization. They are the Negroes w4io 
move to town full of ambition, not to be men — they have not 
so much as heard the meaning of manhood — but to wear good 
clothes, and live like quality folk. Dominated by the single 
aim of making clean the outside of the platter, they naturally 
do not imitate the sort that go to the gallows, but the struggle 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 315 

for fine clothes sometimes overreaches the mark, and ends in a 
suit of stripes. It is from the great mass that is left — the non- 
striving, drowsy mass that has never looked up at the stars — 
either real or imitation stars — that the criminal element of the 
race is chiefly supplied. 

If I should be asked by an observer in a Southern city 
what is the best starting-point for one who wishes to get a 
glimpse of our largest criminal factory, I should say the 
kitchen. May I be forgiven if I should seem to reflect upon 
our common benefactor, the cook : I only mean to suggest that 
if the observer will secure her address, and spend an afternoon 
in the neighborhood of the nondescript which she calls home, 
he will probably find what he is looking for sooner than by 
any other method. The nondescript itself he is likely to find 
deserted, though it is sometimes in the nominal care of 
a helpless old woman who vegetates all day in the darkest 
corner of the room, with a tin-cup of water and a crust on a 
stool by her bedside. There are three chances in four that the 
cook's husband is down town, where he has been since early 
breakfast killing time ; and all the chances in any given num- 
ber that the piccaninnies belonging to the establishment are 
prowling about the neighboring streets and alleys getting into 
mischief, and occasionally fishing bits of bread and meat out of 
garbage barrels, or making cunningly devised raids on the 
Italian's apple-stand on the corner. Or if they are not in the 
neighborhood, they have wandered off to some strange quarter, 
where they have been picked up by the police and sent to the 
station to remain until the mother goes at night to claim her 
property. If the observer should come upon one of these little 
ones in the act of daring an electric car to run over him, he 
will probably find himself wondering why a merciful Provi- 



316 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

dence does not make use of the wheels of the streets to save 
these budding criminals from troubles to come ; but Providence 
evidently has other plans, for he has endowed them with an 
instinct which enables them to dance with utter abandon on 
the very verge of death. He is going to let half of them die, 
anyway, before they are much older, though it is a gruesome 
thought that they will die simply because they came into the 
world unprovided with the vitality necessary to stay in it. 

The observer is likely to return from the scene of investi- 
gation wondering whether it is an extraordinary case calling 
for special sympathy, or whether after all it is only the com- 
mon fate of cooks. If he should choose to pursue the matter 
further, he will find that considerably more than one-half (in 
some cases two-thirds) of the colored families of Southern 
cities are supported Avholly or in part by females, the majority 
of whom are employed away from home. It has been con- 
tended that this is due to the fact that it is more difl&cult for 
men to find employment than women; but anyone who is 
familiar with the relative position of woman in a low civiliza- 
tion will suspect that this is an excuse, not a reason. If the 
observer will go to the country during the crop season, where 
the farmers are making desperate efforts to get laborers, he 
will find men of this class on every creek-bank fishing. If 
the meal-barrel is empty and the fish refuse to bite, they will 
go to the field; but they never forget their first love. It is often 
said that the great cotton crop of the South speaks volumes for 
the industry of the colored man, but every planter knows that 
the credit belongs mainly to the colored woman. If the women 
— with their children — should withdraw from the field, the 
crop would be cut down more than one-half. The real explan- 
ation of the idleness of the men of this class is that they be- 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 317 

long to that grade of society in which woman is a beast of 
burden. They move to the city to get employment, not for 
themselves, but for their wives. Thousands of them are only 
guests in their families. Many a tired washerwoman trudges 
a mile on Saturday night with her basket of clothes because 
she cannot afford to pay her husband to carry it, or because . 
she cannot trust him to collect the money for her work. The 
devotion of these women to their families is the one bright 
spot in this hideous mass. The mother carries the entire 
family on her shoulders as a matter of course. If the father 
chooses to work he works; when he draws his pay it is his 
own; if he chooses to spend it on her family he may; he is 
free; the family is his wife's encumbrance. The wife does 
not ask to be supported; she only asks that her husband will 
not beat her, or steal her wages, or forsake her for another. 
And when he has sinned against her in all these things seven 
times, and until seventy times seven, she forgives him still — 
partly because her heart is boundless, and partly, perhaps, be- 
cause she has infirmities of her own. 

It would be strange if the fever germs of crime did not 
multiply at a fearful rate in such an atmosphere. The mother 
herself in the struggle to provide for her children makes a 
virtue of the necessity which knows no law. Her wages are 
not sufficient to support her own family, and often she feels 
called upon to support two. So strong are her sympathies, 
and so feeble is her moral sense, that none of her ftimily con- 
nections can suffer so long as she has access to her employer's 
pantry. The pilfering of the cook is as much a part of South- 
ern home life as the cook herself. It has long been accepted 
as the inevitable, and in the majority of homes it is understood 
that what is stolen (provided it is of the nature of food or fuel) 



318 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

shall be allowed as a perquisite of the cook's office. But a 
steadily increasing family makes the mother's sources of income 
more and more precarious, and sooner or later she encounters 
the temptation to put an end to the increase. Often to a feeble 
conscience is thus added an enfeebled constitution. If she 
happens to be personally attractive, another avenue of sin opens 
.up before her — one in which she is apt to walk ill-concealed 
from her daughters who are growing up around her. 

This perpetual struggle to raise a family in a cesspool leads 
to results which cover too wide a range to be taken in at a 
glance, and in consequence many of them have been generally 
overlooked. After the children have spent their most suscep- 
tible years in the school of the streets, the State takes them in 
hand and puts them through an intellectual training which 
further equips them for the downward road on which they 
have already started. That is to say, when sufficient time has 
been allowed for the devil to get possession of their wits we 
proceed to sharpen the said wits for his service. An impulsive 
reader will pause here to say that if this is true the public 
schools for colored children had better be closed. This is what 
thousands of Southerners have been saying for years, but the 
South is doing more for the education of the Negro to-day than 
ever before. The fact is the fallacy is too near the surface for 
the argument to convince even those who make use of it. It 
is like saying the left wing is not coming ujd; therefore the 
right should retire. If the left is not going to come up, the 
right may be compelled to retire; but the immediate business is 
to bring up the left. If the various moral agencies which are 
at work among the Negroes continue to lag behind in their 
w^ork of improving the moral condition of the race, the State 
may be compelled to fall back; but the immediate business is 



THE AMEBIGAN NEGRO. 319 

to bring up the moral wing. Tliese great agencies liave not 
been idle, but they have been doing more of the State's work 
than their own. Their watchword has been mentality rather 
than morality. In every Southern city thousands of colored 
children are running wild in the streets, breathing a pestilential 
atmosphere, loading their blood with the fever germs of crime, 
and yet this vast swarm of criminals in the bud can have no at- 
tention because our great benevolent agencies are occupied with 
the intellectual development of criminals in the blossom. The 
loudest crying need in every Negro quarter in the South is a 
day nursery for the benefit of the multitudes of mothers who 
are compelled to go out to service. Every year the little hand- 
ful of cultured colored women of the South get together and 
write preambles and resolutions and apj^eals with the hope of 
directing attention to this need ; but thus far the agencies that 
furnish the money for the work among Negroes have not been 
impressed with the womanish notion of rescuing criminals in 
babyhood. 

We have complained a good deal of late because, after all 
our efforts in behalf of the colored j)eople, the masses have shown 
little if any moral improvement. But these same masses might 
more justly complain that we have done little if anything for 
their moral improvement. The work of throwing moral re- 
straints around the unfortunate classes of which I am speaking 
has not yet begun. Not only are the babies going wild in the 
streets, but our efforts in behalf of the older children are con- 
fined almost entirely to their intellectual development. The 
youth who seeks an 02:)portunity to spend his evenings out of 
reach of the vile atmosphere of his home finds himself between 
the devil and the deep sea. Here and there in the South is a 
j)oorly furnished room or two set apart as a Young Men's 



320 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Christian Association, and here and there a church undertakes 
to keep its doors open several nights in the week. (The 
colored churches generally have not yet grasped the idea that 
they are expected to provide moral advantages for their people.) 
Other decent resorts there are none. Of indecent resorts there 
are a multitude — low saloons and low dance-halls where every 
man, and nearly every woman, carries a razor, and where one 
soon becomes accustomed to the sight of human blood, human 
lust and the terrific bursts of passion for which the Negroes of 
this class are noted. 

Not only have we neglected to provide moral restraints 
for the young people of the undeveloped mass (the colored 
youths who have the privilege of breathing the pure atmos- 
phere of the boarding schools are rarely of this class) , but in 
many instances we have unwittingly helped to smooth the 
downward path for them. It used to be said that it would be 
difficult to find an unhappy Negro, but to-day one may find 
a specimen of this type in almost every Southern community. 
It is the girl who has been educated for a sphere above that 
in which she was raised, and who has knocked at its door in 
vain. She expected to be a teacher (practically the only 
respectable calling open to her sex among her people), but 
when she graduated no vacancies were to be found, and she 
was left in mid-air, with the alternative of struggling to stay 
there until a place could be j)rovided for her, or of descending, 
either to her former life of drudgery, or to that living death 
in which she could for a time keep up the ai^pearance of a re- 
fined woman. There is nothing in the history of this people 
more pitiful than the reproachful cry of the disappointed girl 
whose mind and tastes have been developed until she can but 
look back with horror upon the sphere from which she came. 



THE AMERICAN NEORO. 321 

and who has been left like Noah's dove, with no place for the 
sole of her foot ; who turns with repugnance from her old asso- 
ciates to tind that there are none of her own sort within reach, 
and who is everywhere— both North and South— denied fit 
employment that would enable her to improve the condition of 
her own family and make her surroundings fit to live in. It 
is not easy to exaggerate this evil. It has been noticed that 
the girl who has spent two or more years in the pure atmosphere 
of a college usually returns home with sufficient character to 
meet the perils of her changed situation, even when she finds 
nothing but disappointment. But the average day pupil is 
developed downward in morals at home as rapidly as she is de- 
veloped upward in mind at school, and if there is no helping 
hand held out to her, heaven pity her ! And rarely is the 
helping hand held out. Every year multitudes of colored girls 
go forth from the colored normal schools of Southern cities 
fitted for life to find no way open before them but the way to 
death. 

The policy of encouraging the most promising young 
men of the race to choose secular callings instead of the pul- 
pit — always the place of leadership among the colored people 
— has done still more to smooth the downward path for the 
class of which I am speaking. The incompetency of the 
colored ministry has long been recognized by the honored 
leaders of the race as one of the most serious aspects of the 
Negro problem ; but it is only in recent years that it has been 
brought to the attention of the outside Avorld. The Kev. Dr. 
Edward C. Mitchell, President of Leland University, New 
Orleans, who stands foremost among Northern educators in 
the South, in a recent address at Asbury Park, called attention 
to the fact that the phenomenal improvement of the rising 



322 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

generation of Negroes " lias not been met by a corresponding 
improvement in the ministry." No one living outside of the 
South can realize how far the worthy preachers who lead the 
race are removed, intellectually and morally, from the great 
mass of preachers under their care. The world thinks of these 
honored men as specimens of their vocation ; in reality, they 
stand in about the same relation to many of the men under 
them as St. Paul stood to the Corinthians. Indeed, who that 
has ever heard a Negro bishop urging his preachers to purity 
of life has not been reminded of the apostle's arraignment of 
the imperfectly taught Christians at Corinth, who pushed 
gospel freedom to license, claiming exemption from the moral 
law, and indulged in licentiousness until even heathen morality 
was scandalized. 

Nor can anyone who has never lived in the South realize 
what an incompetent ministry among Negroes means. The 
world has heard much of the boss in politics ; it has heard 
little of that far more interesting character, the boss in black. 
The Czar of all the Russias is not more absolute in his realm 
than is the Negro preacher among his people. The pulpit is 
the oracle of the race. It is often said that a Negro's religion 
does not affect his moral character ; it would be nearer the 
truth to say that the sort of religion which the Negro cultivates 
does not affect his moral character for the better. The Negro 
who comes under the influence of a pure type of religion de- 
velopes as pure a type of character as the white man. There 
are no finer specimens of developed character in the world 
than are to be found among those " house darkies " who grew 
up under the white man's preaching and the white woman's 
home training. The difficulty about the religion inculcated by 
the average Negro pi-eacher is not that it has too little to do 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 323 

with the moral character, but that it has too much to do with 
it. The Negro preacher not only sways his audience as no 
white preacher can sway his, but he dominates his people every- 
where. His will, whether for good or evil ends, is law. So 
great is this influence that an immoral preacher has nothing 
to fear so long as his people come within sound of his voice. 
If he is accused of immoral conduct he does not trouble him- 
self to deny it ; he simply interprets the Bible down to a level 
with his life. The ten commandments, he tells his people, 
were not intended for Christians; the Christian is a son of 
liberty. " Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ 
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke 
of bondage." And what orator would want a better argument 
for an audience of freedmen ? 

The rest of the chapter does not need to be told. Like 
priest, like people. Nor is it necessary, for our present pur- 
pose, to point out tlie remaining phases of the problem which 
crowd into view as I write. The chief cause of the excessive 
criminality among the colored people is the condition of the 
homes of the undeveloped masses — rather the practical home- 
lessness of the masses ; or, to put it yet differently, the lack of 
available mothers in the masses. This is the blackest spot; 
and, as I have tried in these observations to indicate, it is not 
indelible. Or to change the figure, the pit, though horribly 
dark, is not unfathomable. One can hear a stone strike bottom. 
This is more than can be said of the slum pit of the great 
cities. There we listen for the stone to strike bottom until our 
hearts sink within us. The answer to every question is a mock- 
ing echo. In the low Negro quarter one does not stumble at 
eveiy step upon the obstacles which one encounters among 
degenerate whites. The mother in the slums is a withered 



324 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

vegetable; the mother in the black quarter is feeble of con- 
science, but she has blood and muscle and a loudly throbbing 
heart, and shoulders that do not shrink from heavy burdens. 
There is something to start with. The slum mother cares 
neither for herself nor for her children; her black sister does 
not care for herself, but she is not likely to oppose any effort 
that may be made for her children's welfare. Moreover, the 
problem of getting a revolutionizing idea into the heads of the 
people is not so serious in the black quarter as it is in the 
slums. The white degenerate can seldom be persuaded to go 
where ideas are to be had, and when he does go his head is too 
full of the dehumanizing isms of his class to make room for 
a new thought. The Negro, on the other hand, is a persistent 
church-goer, and having no isms to cherish he goes with an 
empty, if a sleepy, head. We send men into the slums to im- 
part life-giving ideas, but few are ready to receive them; in 
the black quarter the multitude are ready to learn, but the 
teachers are wanting. The pulpits are as empty of ideas as 
they are full of sound. 

In a word, the problem of Negro criminality is not the 
hopeless problem of degeneracy. In the slums our heads ache 
while we ask. What can we do? In the black quarter our 
hearts ache while we ask, Why are we not doing ? 



XXIII. 

THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 

(continued.) 

Wherever one finds a decline of interest in tlie Negro 
and his problems somebody is standing by to explain that 
it is because of the Negro's failure to meet expectations. 
Nowhere does one find a disposition to inquire who is re- 
sponsible for the expectations, "We made our calculations 
on the harvest," our ready apologist hurries on to say; "we 
put down our money, and sent laborers into the vineyard, 
and w^e looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it 
brought forth wild graj^es;" and he lays the w^iole responsi- 
bility for the failure on the vineyard, notwithstanding, as he 
may be jDresently induced to confess, he has never been at the 
trouble to find out anything about the size or possibilities of 
the vine, the needs of the soil, the character of the work done, 
or even the time of harvest. History does not record, I believe, 
an instance of a slaveholder demandins; of a slave a harvest 
regardless of the sowing. That last crime was left for the 
Negro's present taskmasters, 

I have said that this reaction was inevitable. Slavery had 
been destroyed by fire — the fire that kindles and rages in the 
bosoms of men. It was the only way: no great evil is de- 
stroyed but by great heat. But the fire that burns a den of 
iniquity to the ground is not the means with which to build a 
temple on its ruins; and this is what many of the early friends 
of the Negro undertook to do. By fire the slaves had been set 

17 (325) 



326 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

free; by fire they should be set up. The idea prevailed that 
if the North was to be kept interested in the freedman it would 
have to be kept in a blaze ; and many a shrewd manipulator 
of collections undertook to stir up enthusiasm by fanning anew 
the flames that had done their legitimate work and should have 
been allowed to die. During this period of passion the wildest 
reports of the achievements and possibilities of the Negro com- 
ing from the South circulated as freely in the North as the 
money which was poured red hot from the North circulated in 
the South. It was impossible for this spasm of enthusiasm to 
last, and when it subsided nothing was more natural than that 
the northern philanthropist should whip out his note-book and 
pencil and begin to figure on the unbusiness-like business. 
And it was inevitable that, having nothing but figures before 
him, he should rise from the calculation with a murmur on his 
lips. 

The murmur broke forth in a loud protest when soane- 
body, having run up the columns under the head of "higher 
education," figured out that every educated Negro in America 
had cost a fortune. There were the figures, and it was useless 
for people living some hundreds of miles from the field to 
attempt to go behind the returns. According to these figures 
the Negroes equipped with the higher education were but a 
handful, while the sums given for higher education aggregated 
several millions. According to these figures higher education 
for the Negro was a failure. The figures might be only figura- 
tive, but there were the books. The sums put down for higher 
education might have been devoted necessarily or unnecessarily 
to other purposes, but there were the books. 

It has been several years since this cooling discovery was 
made, and it is still a common remark that the effort to give 



THE, AMERWAN NEGRO. 327 

the Negro people the higlier education has proved a failure. 
I am not going to burden these pages with the usual tables of 
statistics which, after all, impress us as significant or worthless 
according to our preconceived opinions ; but I may be pardoned 
if I here set down two or three general statements of facts. 
That the amount that has been given for higher education is 
very large cannot be questioned. For nearly a generation the 
North has been annually scoured for funds for this purpose, 
and with a liberality only less amazing than its patience it has 
continued to respond to these appeals until nearly two hundred 
institutions popularly rated as universities and colleges have 
been opened to the Negroes of the South. Yet a very simple 
sum in arithmetic will show that if every dollar that has been 
given for higher education had been devoted exclusively to 
this object, the practical results would have been scarcely sufii- 
cient to supply the pressing needs of either of the two profes- 
sions most widely open to the Negro people. As a matter of 
fact, but a small jDart of this sum has been devoted to collegiate 
work. In 1896, of 40,127 pupils reported in attendance at 178 
colleges and universities (all but five in the South), only 1,455 
were pursuing collegiate studies. Of these, 161 graduated at 
the end of the school year. I would not be understood as re- 
flecting upon any of the institutions that attempt to do real 
college work, but it should be added that only a small propor- 
tion of these graduates received what would generally be re- 
garded as a collegiate education. "We hear much of higher 
Negro education," says Dr. DuBois,* "and yet all candid people 
know there does not exist to-day in the centre of Negro j^opu- 
lation a single first-class, fully equipped institution devoted to 

* The Study of the Negro Problems, by W. E. B. DuBois : Annals of the 
American Academy. January, 1898. 



328 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

the higher education of Negroes : not more than three institu- 
tions in the South deserve the name of college at all." This 
discrimination may be severe, but even admitting to the rank 
of colleges all the institutions that are doing secondary work, a 
majority will still remain to be classed as primary schools. 
There was a time when these primary schools were a necessity; 
but since the establishment of the public school system in the 
South it has been hard to find an excuse for their existence. 
They are to the real colleges what tramps are to the unworthy 
poor. They not only reflect upon the institutions that are doing 
college work, but they deprive them of the money they deserve 
and need and that is really intended for them. If one-fourth 
'Of the money spent upon these so-called colleges since the 
establishment of the public school system in the South had 
been used to supplement the school fund in needy black dis- 
tricts, fully as much more would have been accomplished in 
the way of primary education as under the present system; 
and no one who is familiar with the educational work among 
the Negroes can doubt that if the remaining three-fourths had 
been given to the institutions that were giving, or were willing 
to give collegiate instruction, the results by this time would 
have effectually dispelled all doubts of the value of the higher 
education as a factor in the development of the Negro people. 
The effort, then, to give the Negro people a collegiate edu- 
cation has not yet failed, for the simple reason that it has not 
yet been made. An effort has been made to teach the freed- 
man to read and write, and that has succeeded to the extent of 
relieving the race in America of nearly half of its illiteracy. 
It has not yet been noticed that this effort, which has covered 
so wide a field, has led to the solution of a single Negro prob- 
lem, local or general ; but no one, I believe, has seriously pro- 



THE AMERICAN NEQRO. 329 

posed to deny the Negro these rudiments of an education. On 
the other hand, it is not denied that the effort which has been 
made to give to a few promising Negroes a collegiate education 
has led to the solution of many perplexing j^i'oblems in partic- 
ular localities; and yet because an educational plant equipped, 
to turn out less than two hundred graduates a year failed to 
rescue a submerged nation in a scoi'e of years, the plant has 
been pronounced a failure, and it has been even proposed to 
put out the fire and close the doors, that we may have means 
to experiment on another line. 

There is no sadder commentary upon the chaotic state of 
mind which we are in concerning the Negro and his problems 
than the discussion that is still going on between the two edu- 
cational factions into which the patrons of the Negro are 
divided. This side opposes industrial education because it fails 
to provide the race with the intellectual and moral leaders it 
needs. That side opposes the higher education because it can- 
not orive the race the industrial lift that it needs. Each faction 
sees perfectly what is being done in its own shop, and what is 
not being done in the shop over the way ; and eacli condemns 
the other, as the eye might condemn the hand because it can- 
not see a bird, and as the hand might condemn the eye because 
it cannot seta trap. This is the kernel of the matter: it is 
the eye saying to the hand, " I have no need of thee;" and the 
hand responding with a spiteful slap, " I have no need of thee." 
It is a quarrel about a conflict which does not exist, and which 
in the nature of things can never exist. We should no more 
attempt to substitute industrial training for collegiate instruction 
than we should attempt to substitute the hand for the eye: the 
question is not whether the Negro people need this or that kind 
of training; they need both. Nor is it whether this or that 



330 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

policy is best in view of to-day's needs : the Negro has suffered 
too much already from ■ his own hand-to-mouth policy to be 
saddled with one of ours. The question is, What can be done 
to-day with the means at hand that will result in the greatest 
good for the greatest number for all time? If a dozen men 
have fallen into a well, sentiment will be for getting them all 
out in a lump; but if we have our senses about us we will 
reach for the nearest man first. We cannot well help the men 
who are underneath until we have rescued those on top ; and 
it may be that when we have got the top men out they will 
turn and rescue their fellows without our aid. The work of 
rescue is from the top downward, never from the bottom up- 
ward. Men do not rise out of degradation, but by a force from 
above. The submerged tenth will never emerge while we who 
stand on the bank stare vacantly at the place where we saw the 
last bubble. Nations do not rise by a force originating in the 
ignorant masses, but by a j^ower that has come into the hands 
of a man here and there above the masses. If the Negro peo- 
ple are to be raised in accordance with the divine order, this 
power — ^the power of a revolutionizing idea — must be imparted 
to those who are at the top of the race — the unsmothered few 
who stand where they can see and breathe and stretch their 
limbs; and these must in turn reach down and impart that 
which they have received to those who are beneath them. Not 
by putting a new cunning into the hands of the common 
masses, but by putting a new idea into the heads of the uncom- 
mon few will this race be lifted to its place in the world. 

The opponents of the higher education could hardly have 
chosen a more critical moment for this agitation. After years 
of painful struggle the work has just reached the point where 
one could catch a glimpse of the blue sky through the tangled 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 331 

growth ahead. The way was opening up for a forward move- 
ment. To-day there is a demand in all parts of the South for 
the few institutions that are doing college work to enter the 
wider field which they were designed to occupy. Not only is 
there need for larger boarding accommodations, that those who 
are to receive a liberal education may have a chance to pursue 
their studies out of reach of the pestilence that walketh in the 
darkness of the average Negro home, but the time has come for 
these colleges to extend their work to take in the homes within 
their reach. The university settlement idea is destined to work 
out its greatest results among the Negroes of the South. If the 
various agencies for the amelioration of the condition of the 
poor and ignorant which have been found necessary in white 
communities are ever to be established among the colored peo- 
ple, the work will be inspired, if not set on foot, by the col- 
leges. Certainly until these colleges shall have provided an edu- 
cated ministry there is little hope that the Negro church will 
undertake any great reform, or inaugurate the hundred-and- 
one benevolences which are so much needed by the race. For, 
be it remembered that the Negro is still practically unguarded 
by any of the sheltering arms which we are accustomed to 
throw around our own people. It is still true that almost the 
only place in a southern city where a Negro youth can spend 
his evenings is a low groggery or a lower dance hall. 

But, to make an end of this list of needs, if the Negro 
problems are ever to be seriously studied — and after a quarter 
of a millennium of confusion and contradiction one will hardly 
suggest a further postponement — the work must be undertaken 
by the Negro colleges of the South. This means money ; so 
do all the needs I have named. But there is an opportunity 



332 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

at any one of these colleges for a million dollars to do what ten 
millions cannot do at any white institution in the land. 

The danger which threatens the prevailing system of edu- 
cation is hardly a more serious matter than the effect which the 
decline of interest in the Negro at the North may have upon 
the Negro himself. After all that has been said of the black 
man's lack of gratitude for what the North has done for him, 
j I it is worth while to remember that nothing has yet been dis- 
» covered that will inspire a Negro like a white man's sympathy. 
I am not sure that the sympathy of the Northerner who re- 
gards the Negro simply as his protege, has inspired him to 
more good than evil ; but I am sure that all the interest that 
the North has bestowed upon the Negro in the form of brotherly 
sympathy has done him only good, and that continually. The 
) popular notion that the black man does not care whether any- 
body cares for him or not has no foundation in fact. The 
Negro is not a sensitive plant — he can stand a good deal of 
rough treatment ; but he is a sympathetic animal — he cannot 
stand neglect. A favor will not win him ; but show him your 
sympathy and you have grappled him with hooks of steel. 
When, under the provocations of the reconstruction period, the 
South practically dropped the Negro, the proffered friendship 
of the North was as a giant hand stretched out beneath him. 
That hand was not a help to the entire race : too many stretched 
themselves out at full length upon it; but those who were 
reaching upward found themselves a cubit higher when they 
stood upon it. The striving Negro does not look toward the 
\ North to-day with the yearning of those early days, but the 
j white man's sympathy, wherever he can find it, is still his chief 
incentive. For this outstretched hand — the hand with the 
sympathy in it, not the hand with the money in it — to be with- 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. ' 333 

drawn just now, might not mean a great deal to the degraded 
mass at the bottom, or the cuUured handful at the top ; but 
heaven pity those who are struggling upward by its kindly aid, 
and who have yet found no certain place for their feet. 

In the passing of the old "house darkey," time, that inde- 
fatigable maker of problems, has brought the South another 
hard nut to crack. For the going of these old servants means 
the sundering of the only tie that has been of real service in 
preserving harmony between the two races since their practical 
separation. To the observer from without this will perhajDS be 
regarded as a proper subject for the exercise of a judicious skep- 
ticism; nevertheless, any Southerner of the better class who 
is old enough to recall the events of the last generation will 
find it difficult to resist the conviction that the degree of har- 
mony which existed between the two races during this period 
was due largely to the existence of this one bond which the 
war did not break. One may call it a very small thread if he 
will, but it has proved to be a very durable one. In the days 
of slavery, as every one now knows, the "house darkies" — 
otherwise known as "great-house servants" and "quality 
Negroes" — were slaves only in name, or rather in law. It was 
by no means an unusual thing for the master of the house to 
stand in awe of his butler, and the "black mammy" who did 
not hold undisputed sway in her realm was an ignoble excep- 
tion. These house servants were raised as members of the 
family ex-officio; and if they proved faithful, in the course of 
time the ex-officio appendage dropped off. When the war was 
over and the time of separation came, they went away with the 
understanding that they were still members of the family, and 
that they were not to forget the old home. They did not for- 
get, nor were they forgotten. And through the trying years 



\ \ 



334 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

that followed it was their coming and going more than any- 
thing else that restrained the two races in the day of passion. 
For when " the lower element among the whites would lose all 
patience with the Negro, and needed only an encouraging 
glance from those who stood above them, the Southerner who 
wore in his heart the picture of an old ''black mammy" found 
himself strangely patient. And who can tell how often these 
old servants restrained the rabble of their own race, not out of 
love for them, but out of love for "ole marster" and "ole 
missis.'' 

But they are passing, and the end of the procession is in 
sight; and a strange thing is happening in the South: a gen- 
eration is growing up in ignorance of the Negro. A Pharaoh 
who knows not Joseph is coming to the throne. The South- 
erners who are now of middle age grew up with black play- 
fellows, but their children and the children of their playfellows 
stand facing each other to-day — strangers. One side snaps its 
fingers at the other, the other turns away with a sneer. Not a 
spark of the old feeling on either side has descended from 
father to son. The white youth does not look at a black but 
to look down upon him; the black youth does not look at a 
white but to watch him with suspicion. One does not need to 
be a prophet to read the rest of the chapter if something is not 
quickly done to change the situation. There is but one thing 
that can be done: to the North it is not the ideal thing; to the 
South it hardly seems a practicable thing; but it is the only 
thing. The older people of the South who understand the 
Negro must re-establish, in some degree, the cordial personal 
relations which existed between them and the black race before 
the war. It must be done by this generation, for it cannot be 
done by the next. And it is not a forlorn hope. Race preju- 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 335 

dice as it exists in the South to-day is largely a post-bellum // 
growth. The feeling that the Negro is inferior to the white 
man of course existed before the war; but the idea that one 
cannot afford to take a personal interest in a Negro's welfare is / ' 
clearly a modern conception. The highest born woman of the 
old South never heard of it. Her hands were full of work for ! \ 
the amelioration of the condition of the colored people. She 
loved her servants. She looked after their heads and hearts as / 
well as their bodies. She often taught them to read, in spite of 
the law. She was an angel of mercy to the plantation Negroes 
in the "quarters." And all legends to the contrary notwith- 
standing, she kept a ceaseless watch over the virtue of her 
housemaids. What there was of chastity in the race before the 
war stands on the recording angel's book as a memorial to the 
faithfulness of the Southern mistress. 

It is sometimes said that the people of the South would 
gladly restore these cordial relations, but that the Negro would 
not consent to it. But the Negro has consented to it where he 
has been given a chance. There are families in the South to- 
day in which these old-time relations have never been broken. 
To visit their homes is to get a glimpse of slave days without 
slavery. The housewife is still concerned for the physical, in- 
tellectual and moral welfare of her servants. Her husband 
still inquires diligently after the families of his emiDloyees, and 
busies himself when occasion requires in their behalf. The 
Negroes employed about the home-place still assemble with the 
family at morning prayers. The young housemaid still re- 
ceives instruction and counsel with regard to the pitfalls which 
surround her. In all respects, so far as can be observed, the 
bond of sympathy between the blacks and their employers in 
these homes remains as it was before the war; and I have not 



336 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. . 

been able to learn that either side would willingly have it 
otherwise. There are sentimental patrons of the Negro still 
living who are so zealous for the Negro's privileges that they 
are unwilling to see a renewal of personal relations between the 
two races except on such terms as the whites cannot be induced 
to accept ; but no one seriously believes that they could success- 
fully oppose any effort which the South might choose to make 
1 1 1 in this direction. The Southerner has not lost his power to 
'I influence the Negro, as he finds when he tries to exert it. If 
it be said that what is needed is a recognition by the Southern 
people, not of employees, but of the Negroes who have risen to 
independent positions, it may be answered that when South- 
erners have renewed the old-time personal interest in their 
i employees a better recognition of the more worthy members 
of the race will follow as a matter of course. Before the aboli- 
jl tion agitation, when a Negro of unusual talent arose, he was 
honored by Southern people very much after the fashion that 
the North honors a Negro of like talent to-day. 

I have dwelt at such length upon the charges that have 

been brought against the Negro that little space is left to speak 

I of his positive virtues. Perhaps the most characteristic virtue 

I ji of the American Negro is his amiability. He is not always 

■1 kind, but he is a lover of men. It cannot be said of him, as 

•*■ has been said of the Hawaiians, that he cannot hate, for he is 

! J { capable of terrific outbursts of temper, but it may be said with 

' little exaggeration that the sun does not go down on his wrath. 

' j He is very provoking to a good hater in being unable to "stay 

. mad." He does not cherish enmity ; he forgets it, and before 

\ * you have had time to cool he is back again, all smiles and 

humility, and equally ready to ask a favor or to grant one. 

The Negro slave, whatever his failings, was never accused of 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 337 

cold-hearted ness. In liim the sense of human brotherhood was 
largely developed, and so deep was his good-will towards men 
that it was not often seriously affected by ill treatment. He 
loved to he Avith his master ; he loved to feel his master's 
eye upon him, and was always on the lookout for opportunities 
to do things which would bring him his master's approving 
smile. The old-time Negro rarely betrayed a trust. Many 
volumes could be filled with incidents illustrating his faithful- 
ness. " When the war began," said Senator Vance, of North 
Carolina, " naturally you expected insurrections, incendiary 
burnings, murder and outrage, with all the terrible conditions 
of servile war. There were not wanting fanatical wretches who 
did their utmost to excite it. Did you find it so? Here is what 
you found. Within hearing of the guns that were roaring to 
set them free, with the land stripped of its male population, and 
none around them except the aged, the women and the chil- 
dren, they not only failed to embrace their opportunity of 
vengeance, but for the most part they failed to avail them- 
selves of the chance of freedom itself. They remained quietly 
on our plantations, cultivated our fields, and cared for our 
mothers, wives and little ones, with a faithful love and a loyal 
kindness which, in the nature of things, could only be born of 
sincere good-will." 

The Rev. Dr. R. F. Campbell, in his admirable pajjer on 
" Some Aspects of the Race Problem in the South," gives a 
patlietic incident illustrative of the faithfulness of the old-time 
Negro to his master. "About 1856," he writes, "a holder of 
a small tract of poor land, which was worked by a few slaves, 
died, leaving a widow and two children. The surrender left 
this little family with only the very poor and worn-out planta- 
tion. In 1876 the son died, and about the same time the 



338 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

dauo-liter married a worthless man and removed to another 

o 

t State. This left the widow alone with no means of support. 
One of the Negroes, formerly owned by the family, seeing the 
condition of his old mistress, came at once to her relief and 
began to supply her with food purchased w^ith his own wages. 

" In 1891 he moved to another part of the State, 225 
miles from the old plantation home. But before leaving he 
told one of the leading merchants of the community to see that 
his old mistress did not suffer for anything, and to send the 

/> bills to him. At first bills for food came, but later he has 
paid for her clothes, too, and all this without the slightest ex- 
pectation of getting anything in return. She is now over 
eighty years of age, iand her last days are made bright by the 

j gratitude and affection of her foi-mer slave." Dr. Campbell 
adds that the friend who gave him these facts said of this 
man : " He is quite reticent about it, and I learned of it only 
about a year ago.'' 

It is often said that the new Negroes are not drawn to 
the white people as their fathers were ; but while they stand 

; aloof, there is nothing which an aspiring youth of the better 
type desires so m-uch as the good opinion of white people. It 
is notMng to him to be honored by his own- race if the superior 
race refuses to see any difference between him and the low mass 

' from which he has risen. That is all he is complaining of — 
that we insist on counting him in the unclean mass. We do 
not encourage him to lead a virtuous life. He no longer asks 
for social equality — ^he no longer wants it ; but what he does 

/ want, and what he has the right to ask, is a recognition of the 
lines which his own strivings and the strivings of others of his 
/ ^ / sort are making in the race. He wants to be distinguished from 
those who do not strive. 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 339 

As I write these words I am reminded of three men 
whose names suggest more vividly to my mind the bright side 
of the Negro race than ail the facts which I have been able to 
set in array in the Negro's behalf. The first two are " old- 
time darkies." 

The venerable Bishop Asbury, while on a tour of visita- 
tion through South Carolina in 1788, came one day upon a 
Negro who was sitting on a creek bank fishing. 

"What is your name, my friend?" asked the bishop. 

"Punch, sah." 

"Do you ever pray. Punch?" 

"No, sah." 

The bishop got down off his horse. The care of all the 
churches was upon him, but the churches would have to wait 
while he tried to save that lone black soul in the wilderness ; 
and for an hour he sat by the poor man's side trying to 
push a few seeds down into his benighted mind. Then he 
prayed with him, bade him farewell, mounted his horse and 
rode on. 

Twenty years afterward the bislio|) was again on a tour 
through the South. One day a travel-stained Negro came to 
the house where he was stopjDing and begged to see him. It 
was Punch. He had walked seventy miles to get a glimpse 
of the man who had brou^'ht lio-ht into his darkness. It trans- 
pired that the bishop had no sooner passed out of sight after 
that memorable interview on the creek bank than Punch 
shouldered his fishing-rod and made for the "quarters," his 
whole soul aflame with the wonderful truths he had heard, / 
Henceforth he was a new man, and he soon developed talents / / 
which made him an irresistible force on the plantation. The 
slaves ceased to steal their master's rice, and Sunday carousals 



340 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

were no longer known among them. The overseer tried to 
stop Punch from preaching, but he might as well have tried to 
stop a whirlwind. The next order the preacher received was 
from the overseer to come and pray for him. In a few months 
Punch found himself at the head of a large plantation church, 
which belonged to no particular denomination, and which 
recognized no authority save his own. 

Twenty-eight years after Bisho23 Asbury's second visit, a 
Methodist missionary to the slaves passing through that section 
heard of this church in the wilderness, and went to find it. 
Meeting a Negro on the road, he inquired if there was a 
preacher on the plantation. 

"Oh, yes, massa," said the man, "de bishu}) lib hyar." 

Following the slave's directions, he came presently to the 
"bishup's" cabin and knocked. The door opened and Punch, 
now a hoary-headed patriarch, stood before him leaning on his 
staff. The old man regarded his visitor a moment in silence, 
and then, lifting his eyes to heaven, devoutly exclaimed: 

" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant dejoart in jDcace, for 
mine eyes have seen thy salvation." 

" I've many children in this place," he explained pres- 
ently, " and I have been praying the Lord to send somebody 
to look after them when I'm gone ; and now he has sent you, 
my child, and I am ready to go." 

Standing by his bed a day or two afterward, the mission- 
ary heard him murmur : 

" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace ; let- 
let-le-" And immediately his prayer was answered. 

A more remarkable Negro was Henry Evans, a freedman 
from Virginia who settled in Fayetteville, N. C, the latter part 
of the last century to ply his trade of shoemaking. The de- 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 341 

graded condition of the slaves of the town weighed heavily upon 
the cobbler's heart, and he soon began to preach to him. In 
those days every town had its " lewd fellows of the baser sort," 
whose chief amusement was the persecution of preachers that 
had no parishioners to defend them, and the Negro preachers, 
being entirely without substantial backing, usually came in for 
an extra share of ill treatment. The mob soon drove Evans 
from the town, but, unwilling to give wp his work, he made ap- 
pointments among the sandhills of the surrounding country, 
and many slaves managed to slip out of town at night to hear 
him. Time and again the mob broke up his meetings, and 
often his life was imperiled. But by frequently changing the 
place of meeting he managed to continue his work. In a little 
while the town people began to suspect their servants of attend- 
ing the meetings, so marked was the imiDrovement in their 
morals, and thinking that one who had done the slaves so 
much good might be worth listening to, they called ofP the mob 
and Evans was invited to return. It was not long before the 
Negro had won, by his marvelous eloquence and holy life, the 
hearts of the people of the community, and the attendance of 
white hearers upon his preaching was so large that the chapel 
which they had built for him had to be enlarged to twice its 
size to accommodate the crowd. A change of fortune so sud- 
den and so great would have turned the head of an ordinary 
man, but it only made Henry Evans more humble. " The 
whites are kind to me, and come to hear me preach," he would 
say to his people, " but I belong to my own sort ;" and he acted 
accordingly. He never spoke to a white man but with his hat 
under his arm, and though the best peo2")le of the town held 
him in great esteem, he would never permit himself to be 
seated in any of their houses. " And yet," says Bishop) Capers, 



342 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

who knew him well, " Henry Evans was a Boanerges, and in 
his duty feared not the face of man." 

On the Sunday before he died, while another was con- 
ducting the service, the door connecting the little shed-room, 
in which he lived, with the chancel opened, and the old man 
tottered into the church and leaned upon the chancel rail. 

"I've come to say my last words to you," he whispered. 
"It is this: None but Christ! Three times have I had my 
life in jeopardy for preaching the gospel to you. Three times 
I have broken the ice on the edge of the water and swam across 
the river to preach the gospel to you. And now, in my last 
hour, if I could trust to that or to anything else but Christ 
crucified for my salvation, all would be lost and my soul perish 
forever." 

By the side of these two ancient worthies I would place 
the foremost American Negro of our time. "My earliest 
recollection," writes Booker T. Washington, "is of a small 
one-room log hut on a slave plantation in Virginia. After 
the close of the war, while working in the coal mines of West 
Virginia for the support of my mother, I heard in some acci- 
dental way of the Hampton Institute. When I learned that it 
was an institution where a black boy could study, could have a 
chance to work for his board, and at the same time be taught 
how to work and to realize the dignity of labor, I resolved to 
go there. Bidding my mother good-by, I started out one 
morning to find my way to Hampton, although I was almost 
penniless and had no definite idea as to where Hampton was. 
By walking, begging rides, and paying for a portion of the 
journey on the steam-cars, I finally succeeded in reaching the 
city of Bichmond, Virginia. I was without money or friends. 
I slept on a sidewalk ; and by working on a vessel next day I 



THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 343 

earned enough money to continue my way to the Institute, 
where I arrived with a capital of fifty cents. At Hampton I 
found the opportunity — in the way of buildings, teachers, and 
industries provided by the generous — to get training in the 
class-room and by practical touch with industrial life — to learn 
thrift, economy and push. I was surrounded by an atmosphere 
of business, Christian influence and a spirit of self-hel^) that 
seemed to have awakened every faculty in me, and caused me 
for the first time to realize what it meant to be a man instead 
of a piece of property. While there I resolved, when I had 
finished the course of training, I would go into the far South, 
into the Black Belt of the South, and give my life to providing 
the same kind of opportunity for self-reliance, self-awakening 
that I had found provided for me at Hampton." 

The story of Booker Washington's work at Tuskegee is 
too familiar to be told here. To-day this man occupies a 
higher place in ]3ublic esteem than has been reached by any 
other member of his race. The question forces itself upon the 
mind: Can it be that a race which has produced a Booker 
Washington is in hopeless case? 



XXIV. 

THE FRIENDLY TIBETANS. 

Tibet has been so jealously guarded from "foreign devils"" 
by its rulers, the Chinese, that very little is really known of 
its people — though many marvelous stories have been told 
about them. It is now generally admitted that most of the 
books of the earliest travelers through Tibet are little more 
than romances. Isabella Byrd Bishop, a noted traveler and 
author, who is perhaps our best authority on the Tibetans, says 
that while the people " look the wildest of savages " they are 
by no means what they seem. They are probably the ugliest 
people in the world, and much of their ill repute is due to this 
unfortunate circumstance. Mrs. Bishop describes them as- 
having high cheek-bones, broad, flat noses without visible 
bridges, small, dark, oblique eyes with heavy lids, and imper- 
ceptible eyebrows, wide mouths, full lips, thick, big, projecting 
ears deformed by great hooks, straight black hair nearly as 
coarse as horsehair, and short, square, ungainly figures. Their 
grotesque appearance is heightened perhaps by their costume 
and ornaments. To all this must be added the painful fact that 
they are preeminently dirty. " They wash once a year, and, 
except for festivals, seldom change their clothes until they be- 
gin to drop off." Yet they are healthy and strong and attain 
to extreme old age. 

Notwithstanding their unprepossessing exterior, recent 
travelers have found them almost invariably friendly, and Mrs. 

(347) 



348 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Bishop thinks that they are among the " pleasantest of peoples." 
" I ' took ' to them at once at Shergol," she says, " and terribly 
faulty though their morals are in some respects, I found no 
reason to change my good opinion of them in the succeeding 
four months." Everywhere the peoj^le treated her with every 
evidence of friendliness, often wearing their festival dresses and 
abandoning their most ordinary occupations in honor of her 
visit. ,. They were exceedingly anxious to amuse her and to 
have the time of her sojourn among them pass as pleasantly as 
possible. Speaking of the Nubra people, she says it was im- 
possible not to become attached to them, for on every hand 
she was met by evidences of their good-will. " Feasts were 
given in our honor, every gonijo was open to us, monkish blasts 
-on colossal horns brayed out welcomes, and while nothing could 
exceed the helpfulness and alacrity of kindness shown by all, 
there was not a thought or suggestion of backsheesh. The men 
of the villages always sat by our camj)-fires at night, friendly 
and jolly, but never obtrusive, telling stories, discussing local 
news and the oppressions exercised by the Kashmiri officials, 
the designs of Russia, the advance of the Central Asian Kail- 
way, and what they consider as the weakness of the Indian 
Government in not annexing the provinces of the northern 
frontier. Many of their ideas and feelings are akin to ours, 
and a mutual understanding is not only possible, but inevi- 
table." 

» 
Mr. Redslob, a missionary in Tibet, testifies that when on 

different occasions he was smitten by heavy sorrows he felt no 
difference between the Tibetan feeling and expression of sym- 
pathy and that of Europeans. Mrs. Bishop says that " a 
stronger testimony to the effect produced by Mr. Bedslob's 
twenty-five years of loving service among the people could 



ii%,^ ^1^ 




THE FRIENDLY TIBETANS. 851 

scarcely be given than our welcome in Nubra. During the 
dano'erous illness that followed anxious faces thronged his 
humble doorway as early as break of day, and the stream of 
friendly inquiries never ceased till sunset, and when he died 
the people of Ladak and Nubra wept and made a great mourn- 
ing for him as for their truest friend." 

Although polyandry exists among the Tibetans, and family 
life is in some respects very dark, it is said that the children 
are brought up to be very obedient to their parents and that 
parental affection is very strong. 

In their way the Tibetans are a wonderfully religious 
people. A form of Buddhism prevails, and one is seldom out 
of sight of monasteries. Mr. Andrew Wilson says that they 
are "the most preeminently praying people in the world. 
. . . They have praying stones, praying pyramids, pray- 
ing flags flying over every house, praying v/heels, praying 
mills, and the universal prayer — ' Om mani padmi haun ' (God 
the jewel in the Lotus) — is never out of their mouths." Mr. 
Wilson describes a praying mill at Jangi — an ingenious con- 
trivance driven by water power, and calculated to present in a 
very short time several millions of petitions. But the one 
prayer of the Tibetans is the eternal " Om mani x>admi haun'' 
" These six syllables," says Colonel Yule, " among all prayers 
on earth, form that which is most abundantly recited, written, 
printed, and even spun by machines for the good of the faith- 
ful. They are the only prayers known to the ordinary Tibe- 
tans and Mongols: the first words the child learns to stammer, 
the last gasping utterances of the dying. The wanderer mur- 
murs them on his way, the herdsman beside his cattle, the 
matron at her household tasks, the monk in all the stages of 
contemplation. They form at once a cry of battle and a shout 



352 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

of victory. They are to be read wherever the Lama church 
has spread, upon banners, upon rocks, upon trees, upon walls, 
upon monuments of stone, upon household utensils, upon 
strips of paper, upon human skulls and skeletons. They form 
the utmost conception, the path of rescue and the gate of sal- 
vation." Colonel Montgomerie thus describes one of the 
prayer-wheels in common use : 

" It was necessary that the Pundit should be able to take his 
compass bearings unobserved, and also that, when counting his 
paces, he should not be interrupted by having to answer ques- 
tions. The Pundit found that the best way of effecting these 
objects was to march separately, with his servant either behind 
or in front of the rest of the camp. It was, of course, not 
always possible to effect this, nor could strangers be altogether 
avoided. Whenever people did come up to the Pundit, the 
sight of his prayer-wheel was generally sufficient to prevent 
them addressing him. When he saw any one approaching, he 
at once began to whirl his prayer-wheel round, and as all good 
Buddhists whilst doing that are su23posed to be absorbed in re- 
ligious contemplation, he was very seldom interrupted. The 
prayer-wheel consists of a hollow, cylindrical copper bag, 
which revolves round a spindle, one end of which forms the 
handle. The cylinder is turned by means of a piece of copper 
attached to a string. A slight twist of the hand makes the 
cylinder revolve, and each revolution represents one repetition 
of the prayer, which is written on a scroll kept under the cyl- 
inder. (The 23rayer is sometimes engraved on the exterior of 
the wheel.) The prayer-wheels are of all sizes, from that of a 
large barrel downwards ; but those carried in the hand are gen- 
erally four or six inches in height by about three inches in 
diameter, with a handle projecting about four inches below the 



THE FRIENDLY TIBETANS. 353 

bottom of the cylinder. The one used by the Pundit was an 
ordinary hand one, but instead of carrying a paper scroll with 
the usual Buddhist prayer, ' Om 7nani padmi haun,^ the cylin- 
der had inside it long slips of paper, for the purj^ose of record- 
ing the bearings and number of paces. The top of the cylin- 
der was made large enough to allow the paper to be taken out 
when required. The rosary, which ought to have 108 beads, 
was made of 100 beads, every tenth bead being much larger 
than the others. The small beads were made of a red compo- 
sition to imitate coral, the large ones of the dark corrugated 
seeds of the ridras. The rosary was carried in the left sleeve. 
At every hundredth pace a bead was dropped, and each large 
bead dropped consequently represented 1000 paces. With his 
prayer-wheel and rosary the Pundit always manages, one way 
or another, to take his bearings and to count his paces." 

The power of the gospel has developed some noble char- 
acters among these savage people. Mrs. Bishop mentions the 
Tibetan British postmaster in Leli as a man of spotless reputa- 
tion. Everyone places unlimited confidence, she says, in his 
integrity and truthfulness, and his religious sincerity has been 
attested by many sacrifices. "He is a Ladaki, and the family 
property was at Stok a few miles from Leh. He was baptized 
in Lahul at twenty-three, his father having been a Christian. 
He was for ten years mission schoolmaster in Kylang, but 
returned to Leh a few years ago as postmaster. His ' ancestral 
dwelling' at Stok was destroyed by order of the wazir, and his 
property confiscated, after many unsuccessful efforts had been 
made to win him back to Buddhism. Afterwards he was de- 
tained by the wazir, and compelled to serve as a sepoy, till Mr. 
Heyde went to the council and obtained his release. His 
house in Leh has been more than once burned by incendiaries. 



354 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

But he pursues a quiet, even course, brings up his family after 
the best Christian traditions, refuses Buddhist suitors for his 
daughters, unobtrusively but capably helps the Moravian mis- 
sionaries, supports his family by steady industry, although of 
noble birth, and asks nothing of anyone. His ' good-morn- 
ing ' and ' good-night,' as he daily passed my tent with clock- 
work regularity, were full of cheery friendliness ; he gave much 
useful information about Tibetan customs, and his ready help- 
fulness greatly facilitated the difficult arrangements for my 
farther journey." 



XXV. 

• IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. 

After all that has been written about the Chinese little 
is known of their real character. This is due mainly to the 
fact that for some reason the Chinese are never s]3oken of except 
in superlatives. One never writes about them in a cool, disin- 
terested way. There is something about their character that 
tempts one to take sides, and one finds himself either an ex- 
travagant admirer or an equally extravagant hater of the whole 
race. One writer extols them as excelling all the races of the 
world in the qualities which constitute greatness; another 
denounces them as being among the lowest specimens of 
humanity, hardly above the beasts of the field. We have been 
told on the one hand that "the Chinese have demonstrated that 
Christianity is not necessary to the higliest civilization, for they 
have obtained the most advanced culture without any knowl- 
edge of our ScrijDtures or creeds." We have been told with 
equal vigor on the other hand that they are the lowest order 
of animal creation. One thing seems tolerably clear, and that 
is that Chinese chai"acter has been persistently misrepresented. 
As the Rev. H. P. Beech, a former missionary to China, has 
said: "The Chinese proverb to the effect that the summer 
insect will not speak of ice, nor a frog in a well discourse on 
the heavens, is forgotten by many writers who study the 
Chinese in our laundries, or in Chinese ports, where contact 
with the vices of a AVestern civilization let loose for a lustful 

(357) 



358 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

holiday has had a baneful effect on a much tempted and abused 
people. Merchants who live in the treaty ports, travelers along 
the coast with no knowledge of the language, and the average 
steamer captain with the vicious life of the port from which to 
gain his data concerning the Chinese and missionary effort, are 
not to be wholly trusted as witnesses concerning the natives 
and missions among them." 

Archdeacon Graves, of Hong Kong, who is regarded as a 
standard writer on the Chinese, concludes a strong indictment 
of their institutions by acknowledging that, notwithstanding the 
conditions are so unfavorable to the development of social and 
civil virtues, the Chinese are on the whole a courteous, orderly, 
industrious, peace-loving, sober and patriotic peoj^le. Rev. 
Dr. Dennis, who has written the ablest review of missions that 
has been published, after dwelling upon the dark side of 
Chinese character, says that these peoj^le "could teach a con- 
siderable portion of the Occidental world profitable lessons in 
filial piety, respect for law, reverence for superiors, economy, 
industry, patience, perseverance, contentment, kindliness, polite- 
ness, skill in the use of opportunities, and energy in the con- 
quering of an adverse environment. The merchants of China, 
in contradistinction to the officials and to small traders, are 
held in high esteem as men of probity and of business honor. 
The capabilities of the Chinese people under favorable auspices 
will surely secure to them an exceptionally high and honorable 
place in the world's future. There is a staying power in their 
national qualities, and a possibility of development under 
healthful conditions which deserve more recognition than the 
world seems at present to accord." 

"A permanency of Chinese institutions," says Dr. Cun- 
nyngham, "certainly speaks well for them. If they have not 



ZZV THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. 



359 



solved the great problem of liuinan government, they have 
succeeded in preserving intact, through thousands of years, far 
beyond that of any other nation, their form of government and 
their national institutions." Dr. Cunnyngham declares that 
the Chinese are an industrious, quiet, peace-loving people. 
They reverence age and give themselves to absolute obedience 




TWO " YELL.OV/ KIDS." 



to parents. This habit of subordination, he says, and the con- 
stant control of their passions tends to render crimes of violence 
less frequent than in almost any other country. It is generally 
admitted that the long life of the Chinese government is due 
mainly to the fact that it is established on the basis of reverence 
to those who are in authority. "Filial piety," says Prof. 
Douglas, "is the leading principle in Chinese ethics, the ]X)int 



360 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

upon which every teacher from Confucius downwards has most 
strongly insisted, and its ahnost universal practice affords the 
ground for the belief held by some that in the long continu- 
ance of the empire the Chinese are reaping the reward of the 
fifth commandment of the Mosaic decalogue. Reverence for 
parents among the- Chinese includes reverence for all one's 
ancestors, and for the Emperor as the father of all." The 
Chinese text-books tell the story of Yu Shun, who is said to 
have lived twenty-two centuries before our era. Although his 
father was stupid and his mother depraved, he was so loving 
and dutiful a son that, so the story goes, God gave him ele- 
phants with which to plough his field and birds to weed it; 
and the Emperor sent nine of his sons to be his servants, and 
gave him two of his daughters to be his wives, and finally 
abdicated in his favor, saying that one who could be so dutiful 
a son could govern the empire. 

No other people have so high a regard for the aged and 
the learned. It is said that if a man presents himself at the 
literary examinations year after year until he is eighty years 
of age, the Em|)eror, to show his respect for gray hairs, grants 
him an honorary degree and the costume of the rank for which 
he has been an unsuccessful competitor; and sometimes the 
same honor will be conferred on a very old man who has never 
competed at the literary examinations. 

"Family festivals are held to celebrate each decade of their 
parents' life, and are sometimes held even after the parents' 
death. Among other gifts in these family festivals a handsome 
coffin is thought to be a peculiarly acceptable present to make 
to an aged parent." Chinese literature is full of stories of filial 
affection. It is told of an old man that he dressed and behaved 



IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM, 361 

like a little child so that his aged parents, when looking at 
him, might not be reminded of their advanced years. 

Their regard for learning is even greater than their ven- 
eration for age. They have a maxim which runs, that "in 
learning age and youth go for nothing; the best informed take 
the precedence." Dr. E. H. Graves, a distinguished American 
missionary in China, tells us that the name "teacher" is in- 
scribed on a tablet in connection with "heaven" and "earth" 
and "prince" and "parents," as one of the five chief objects of 
veneration, and worshiped with solemn rites. The teacher is 
regarded as one whose duty it is to do more than simply impart 
mental knowledge. He is to be the instructor, guide and friend 
to his pupil, the model on which the pupil's morals and man- 
ners are to be formed. The personal character of the teacher 
is to be regarded as of first importance, and his ability to in- 
spire the pupil with ardor in the pursuit of virtue is the gauge 
of his efficiency. "Of course many teachers fall far below this 
ideal. The Chinese classics are not lacking in lofty ideals, 
comparing favorably in their moral teachings with the Greek 
and Latin classics; but, as has been said, 'Confucian scholars 
seem to think that, by paying a sentimental reverence to the 
instruction of the sages, they have thus become in some way 
partakers of their virtues.' They need the power of the fear 
of God and of true love to men to enforce sentiments which 
they admire from a distance." 

In no country in the world, says Dr. Kobert Brown, has 
less court been paid to wealth, because all rank and distinction 
in China spring from learning; hence mere wealth must be 
always vulgar, and if undistinguished by other qualities the 
mere possession of riches must rank as inferior to the mandarin 
who by his knowledge can rise to the highest distinction in 



362 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

the state, next to the Emperor himself, and in most cases to 
wealth also. The same writer says that it is only in the Anglo- 
Chinese, or foreign communities, that the unlearned rich man 
is held in respect among his countrymen. He is honored in- 
finitely less than the poorest scholar who has taken a degree at 
the great competitive examinations. 

Dr. Graves insists that, in spite of all that has been said 
to the contrary, the Chinese have within them the elements of 
a stalwart, reliable character. They are industrious, enterpris- 
ing, persevering, and their business men have a practical com- 
mon sense which has earned for them the name of " Yankees 
of the East." They have an instinct for organization, and 
societies and guilds abound even in their smallest communities. 
Theoretically, their moral standards are high, though many of 
their practical maxims are degraded. Even their vices are 
mixed with virtues. For example, while they have a proverb, 
" One leaf is not missed from a big tree," by which they mean 
that there is no harm in stealing a little from a rich man, they 
regard stealing from the poor as a great outrage. Dr. Graves 
in his " Forty Years in China " tells us that he has seen a little 
stall of fruits or sweetmeats by the side of the street with the 
prices marked on each pile of peanuts or sugar-cane. While 
no one was present to receive the money, no one would think 
of helping himself without paying for it. "A Chinese shop- 
keeper," says Dr. Graves, " would probably see no harm in 
overcharging a rich man who is able to stand it, that he might 
sell at a reduced rate to the poor man who needed the article 
for food. The provision of the Mosaic law with regard to 
gleaning is practiced by the Chinese in some of their crops, f 
Indeed, the human spirit in the law of Moses is exemplified in 
their standard of what is right." 



m 



IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. 363 

While opium is eating out the vitality of the Chinese 
people, Dr. Graves thinks that it is a matter about which the 
whiskey-loving white races can afford to be modest. " It was 
not an Oriental, but a British company that promoted the cul- 
tivation of the poj)py in India, and encouraged the use of the 
drug. in China, almost forcing it upon the people by the war of 
1842, And while the habit affects all classes as does the drink 
habit with us, it is by no means universal, nor is the conscience 
of the nation dead to the evil. The Chinese government has 
always regarded the use of opium as a source of danger to the 
State and as an element of natural decay, absorbing as it does 
much land that might be used for producing food. The 
Emperor, Tao Kwang, when urged to legalize the traffic and 
tax the drug, exclaimed: 'I can never consent to derive an 
income from the vices of my subjects ' — a sentiment that is 
none too common among those in high places in our own 
nation." 

The Chinese are remarkable for their mild and gentle 
dispositions. They are lovers of peace and enemies to all 
the vices which spring from asperity of temper. " There is 
not," says Dr. Brown, " a more good-humored people on the 
face of the earth than the Chinese, nor a more peaceable one." 
They are also conservative in their disj^osition. " When the 
natural timidity of the people has so far burst the bounds of 
moderation as to compel them to rush into rebellion, the object 
of the revolution is never to destroy the form of government 
that is existing, but only to oppose the tyrant." 

Speaking of the harrowing tales of the cruelty of the 
Cliinese to their criminals, the noted traveler, Dr. H. M. Field, 
says: "We must not take the pictures of these terrible scenes 
a.s if they were things which stare in the eyes of all beholders, 

19 



364 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

or which give the fairest impression of Chinese law ; as if this 
were a country where tliere is nothing but suffering and crime. 
On the contrary, it is preeminently a land of peace and order. 
The Chinese are a law-abiding people. Because a few of their 
bad men are found in a city of a million inhabitants, and pun- 
ished with severity, we must not suppose that this is a lawless 
community. Those who would judge thus must at least be 
called on to point out a better governed city in Europe. Their 
fearful Draconian code can at least claim that it is successful in 
suppressing crime. The law is a terror to evil-doers, and the 
proof of this is that order is so well preserved. This great 
city of Canton is as quiet, and life and property are as safe as 
in London or New York ; yet it is done with no display of 
force. There is no obtrusion of the police or the military, as 
in" Paris or Vienna. The gates of the city are shut at night, 
and the Tartar soldiers make their rounds ; but the armed 
hand is not always held up before the public eye. 

The Chinese love the land of their birth and the commu- 
nity in which they were born, and always hope to go back 
there, or at least for their bones to lie beside those of their own 
people. " If he who attains to honors of wealth," says a pop- 
ular proverb, " never returns to his native place, he is like a 
finely dressed person walking in the dark" — all is thrown away. 

Infanticide is not so common as is usually supposed. Chil- 
dren may be often found floating in the river with large gourds 
attached to their backs ; but these, it is said, are children who 
have fallen from the family boats which are to be seen in such 
numbers on the Canton river and elsewhere, and all of whom 
have these gourds fastened to them to prevent them from sink- 
ing in case they tumble overboard. 

Whatever may be said of the abominable custom of ban- 



IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. - 365 

daging the feet of the women, it is after all only a result of one 
of their ideas of beauty, just as tight lacing was at one time an 
almost equally abominable custom of our own. Chinese poets 
speak of these deformed feet as golden lilies, and the pitiful 
rocking of the women in attempting to walk as " the waving 
of the willows." The custom of binding the feet is not uni- 
versal. It is not practiced among the very poor nor among; 
the Tartar women, though many who have not this deformity 
will walk as if they had it ; and it is not uncommon to see- 
women hobbling along the street in a manner intended to 
deceive passersby into believing that they have fashionable 
feet also. 

Travelers, whose acquaintance with the Chinese is con- 
fined chiefly to the lower classes, such as street loafers and fre- 
quenters of the inns, are apt to regard the Celestials as a very 
rude, coarse, unmannerly race. Captain Younghusband says 
that when one can see the Chinese gentleman at home one 
modifies his impressions considerably. " I saw much to admire^ 
and even to like in them. I liked their never-failing politeness 
to one another, which seemed to me to be too incessant and sus- 
tained to be mere veneer, and to indicate a real feeling of 
regard for one another. Chinamen have little regard for 
strangers, but I think they have for one another." 

Cheerfulness is another noticeable trait of the Chinese, 
" The general impression among Europeans," says the writer 
whom I have just quoted, ''is that Chinese are cold, hard crea- 
tures, who have not a laugh in them. As a matter of fact they 
have plenty of heartiness and joviality when they care to 
indulge in it. I should say, too, that their conversation is 
good; it is certainly bright, and it is natural and well sus- 
tained." Concluding his estimate of Chinese character, the 



366 TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

writer says : " A Chinese is perhaps rather too celestial, rather 
too much up in the clouds and above ordinary mortals, and 
certainly shows too little interest in the common everyday affairs 
of this world ; but he is an interesting man to meet at home. 
And, mingled with the irritation which his superciliousness so 
often inspires, I often have a feeling of regard for a man who 
can aspire to such a lofty standpoint as the Chinee does, and 
in his case I felt that it was not all simple self-conceit, for he 
had in him the pride of belonging to an emmre which has 
stood intact for thousands of years, and which was approach- 
ing civilization when we ourselves were steeped in barbar- 
ism. 

It will be a revelation to many to learn that in the matter 
of integrity China stands ahead of all other nations, being rated 
five per cent, above Holland, ten per cent, above Great Britain, 
and fifteen per cent, above America. The Rev. Gilbert Mcin- 
tosh, of the American Presbyterian Press, Shanghai, writes 
that during fourteen years' supervision of Mission Press work 
in China he has had many opportunities of becoming ac- 
quainted with and admiring the trustworthiness of Chinese 
business men in financial transactions. The most interesting 
case he has met with among Chinese Christians was that of 
Mr. Loo, for many years compradore (cashier) of the American 
Presbyterian Mission Press, Shanghai. He was a shrewd busi- 
ness man, and could easily have had a more lucrative position 
in a purely commercial enterprise ; but he faithfully kept on 
at a comparatively small salary, in loyal service of the Mission 
Press. " Large sums of money passed through his hands, both 
in connection with Mission Treasury and Press work ; yet, 
when he suddenly died, the closing of his books was a simple 
matter because perfect clearness and honesty had characterized 



IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. 367 

the discharge of his onerous duties. In all these years not a 
dollar had stuck to his palm." 

Rev. W. W. Lawton, of Chinkiang, a representative of 
the American Bible Society, says that when a Chinaman comes 
to examine his Bibles he almost invariably tries to "jew" the 
colporteur down. If he says that he will take a Bible or a tract, 
" unless he has agreed to give the regulation price, you had 
better count your money over, for it is almost sure to be short; 
but if he once agrees to give what you charge, you can then 
take his handful of cash and put it in your pocket, confident 
that he has counted out the full amount." 

The popular notion of Chinese character is that it is the 
quintessence of selfishness. Yet Chinese life is not without its 
stories of liberality and sacrifice. In a letter to the author, 
the Rev. C. W. Pruitt, of Hevanghsien, tells of a wealthy 
neighbor of his who recently celebrated his birthday. He in- 
vited to dinner a large number of friends and relatives ; but so 
desirous was he to have as many as possible share the pleasures 
of the occasion that he almost literally fulfilled our Lord's in- 
junction and had the word circulated in the highways that all 
would be welcome. Mr. Pruitt adds that perhaps some would 
say that this astute Chinee hoped to get a reputation for gen- 
erosity for giving a dinner to so many of the poor, "but in my 
opinion he was influenced largely by a cordial desire to see 
many people happy on this glad day." 

A missionary, whose name I have unfortunately mis^Dlaced, 
tells an interesting story of a Chinese Avidow, of threescore 
years, who is the center of Christian influence in her commun- 
ity. " She lives after the fashion of the j^lainer Chinese — a 
tiny yard, a small old brick house, a hard dirt floor, broken 
furniture, no window-glass, not even one of the kerosene lamps 



368 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

now SO common in China to replace the flickering oil-dip, none 
of the comforts of an American home nor the display of the 
rich Chinese. But the poorer Christians find a friend in her, 
and she contributes liberally to the work of the Lord. I have 
known her at one time to contribute over seventy dollars, suffi- 
cient to support a native preacher for a year. And again she 
bought and deeded to the church a piece of property worth a 
hundred and ten dollars. Bearing in mind that a hundred dol- 
lars would be a liberal estimate of all her expenditures on her- 
self and her grandson for a year, we may appreciate the com- 
parative worth of these gifts," 

It may sound a bit extravagant, but the Chinese are really 
a humane people. The Rev. B. F. Edwards, of Lienchow, has 
furnished us with several illustrations of this virtue. " The 
great desire of a Chinese father or mother," says Mr. Edwards, 
-"is that a son may be horn to them. When a family is very 
poor and a daughter is born, or when several girls have pre- 
viously been born into the family, it is often considered de- 
sirable to take the baby girl's life. Not far from our home is 
an institution designed to prevent this. This place has been 
secured by popular subscription, and a nurse is provided to care 
for the children. After caring for them for some time, perhaps 
only a few months, they are sold, with the understanding that 
they are to be wives in the families to which they go. It is 
true," adds Mr. Edwards, "that this often means a life of 
servitude, but, considering that this is a heathen people, it is 
highly commendable." Mr. Edwards also writes of the home 
for the aged at Canton, which, he says, is accomplishing much 
good. In Canton there are life-saving boats, and it is said that 
in a neighboring town men of means offer a reward for the 
rescue of drowning people. 



m THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. 371 

The Rev. T. C. Britton, of Soocliow, sends the following 
extracts from an article on the benevolent institutions in 
Soocliow written by a Chinaman : 

" The benevolent halls of Soocliow stand as a forest in 
abundance, their number not being easily estimated. The 
officials and peoi^le together contribute all that is ex|)ended in 
each institution. This work was originated for no other pur- 
pose than for the benefit of the peoj^le. 

"Any family, residing within the city or without, that is 
too poor to rear their children, may bring them in infancy 
(both sons and daughters) to this institution. Wet nurses 
having been previously employed, the children are fed and 
clothed as well as if they were in homes." 

[Mr. Britton says that he visited this institution and was 
kindly received. "The office shows signs of being a place 
where much business is transacted. Over the door is a large 
tub, in which the infants are placed by those that bring them. 
In this receptacle the babe remains till some one inside is 
awakened by its cries. They reported eight hundred children, 
all of whom are kept, not in the building, but in the homes 
of their nurses, except a few sick ones. One of these infants 
was brought into the office while I was there. It was warmly 
dressed and carefully carried by its nurse. This institution is 
said to have been established two hundred years ago."] 

" The offenders and unscrupulous villains, whose charges 
are a degree lighter than that they should be imprisoned, are 
put in the reformatory, with the hope that they will reform — 
be thoroughly aroused to the consideration of their former 
wickedness — and do well. The expenses of this institution are 
met by the Provincial Governor." 

The Rev. B. G. Partch, of Cliinan, to whom I wrote ask- 



372 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

ing for instances of the brighter side of Chinese life and char- 
acter, replies that he read my request to the members of his 
class, who gave him the following bits of information : 

" Food depots and clothing depots are opened for the poor 
in the provincial cities every winter. There are also asylums for 
women who are uncared for, asylums for orphans, asylums for 
the blind, free dispensaries, and free schools, most of which are 
supported by private subscription. In the regions visited by 
the Yellow Kiver floods, where the population must shift about, 
land is purchased for free burial of strangers, a most gracious 
thing in a country where burial customs are so important. 

" A man by the name of Chin in Chinanfu hit upon the 
following plan to relieve distress : To a poor man, whom he 
considered deserving, he would lend cash, perhaps as much as 
five thousand, on the understanding that he was to return a 
part every day. If he succeeded he might borrow more ; if 
he failed the amount lost was charged to charity. 

"Last year there were two men going to Manchuria. The 
weather was cold and their clothing insufiicient. Matters had 
come to a difficult pass when the first said to the second : *Why 
should two of us die ? You take my clothes and save your- 
self The second said: ' Wait awhile.' They had gone but a 
little further when the first was surprised to see that his com- 
jDanion had entirely divested himself of clothing, lain down in 
the snow, and was urging him to put them on. In the coun- 
try of Yu-Cheng a rich man took pity on his poor neighbor 
farmers, who could not afford animals, and placed a cow and a 
horse at their disposal for i^lowing purposes, to be used in rota- 
tion." 

Dr. Cunnyngham says that he once saw in China an 
asylum for homeless and friendless cats, founded by a devout 



Ili THE FLO WEE Y KINGDOM. 373 

Buddhist woman. Chinese have foundling asylums, and in some 
of the larger cities free medical dispensaries are provided for 
the poor. In seasons of famine and distress the v,^ealthy classes 
often give liberally for the relief of the suffering. Dr. Cun- 
nyngham adds that there is ground for the belief, however, 
that benevolence in China is the fruit of early Christian teach-, 
ing, perhaps that of the Roman Catholic missionaries centuries 
ago. 

In many parts of China there is a consideration shown for 
strangers that is remarkable. At the time of the Ku-cheng 
riots, an old man who was not a Christian ran fourteen miles 
to warn the missionaries of danger, and stood by until he felt 
that the foreigners were safe. The rioters had never seen the 
foreigners but were afraid they were there for evil purposes. 
A missionary lady writes that once when she was traveling she 
was belated and compelled to stop at a place where foreigners 
were unknown. She feared that she could not get a room at 
the inn, but a laboring man who had already engaged his room 
insisted upon her taking it. This lady adds : "During my 
furlough in America I was once obliged to stay over night at 
a little village, the train having to stop for repairs. The con- 
ductor told us there was only one hotel in the place, and every 
man ran for that hotel. Several ladies sat up all night. I 
could not help contrasting my Chinese heathen friends with 
these co-called Christian people." 

The same writer adds that the Chinese women are virtu- 
ous, and that a man will i^rotect the virtue of his wife or of 
others with his own life. 

In spite of all that has been said of Chinese deceit and 
insincerity, the instances of fidelity among them are innumsr- 
able. Miss J. E. Martha Lebun, of Sing-in, relates a story of 



374 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF IIUMANITT. 

a woman attending her training school who was left in charge 
of the institution for three weeks during Miss Lebun's absence 
in Shanghai. " When I came back," Miss Lebun writes, " I 
found a letter in my desk saying that her mother had died, and 
asked if I would not tell her. I dreaded it for fear she wa^uld 
get sick, for she was attached to her mother, and perhaps would 
leave me. But how amazed I was when, after a very careful 
conversation with her, in which I finally told her the worst, she 
quietly but sadly answered : 'I knew it; she died two weeks 
ago.' 'Why then did you not go home,' was my reply. ' No,' 
she answered, ' you trusted your house and the school to me, 
and I jn'oraised to be responsible for it. How could I leave ? 
If all my family had died I would not dare to go.'" Miss 
Lebun adds that during her absence nothing was locked up 
except her trunk. " Everything was open, and the natives had 
free access to all my rooms, closets and everything, and nothing- 
was missins:." 

The Rev. J. M. W. Farnham, of Mokanham, relates a 
story of a coolie Avho was in the employ of an English broker 
in Shanghai. The Englishman lost his health, and having no 
income was presently reduced to great straits. This coolie 
hired himself on the street and used his scant wages to buy 
comforts for his sick master. A lady friend told Mr. Farn- 
ham how^ her husband had lent a Chinese servant a sum of 
money to help him take up a mortgage. Years afterwards this 
lady was left a widow and in need of money. She had forgot- 
ten about the loan when one day the old servant came to her 
with the entire sum his former master had lent him. 

Miss L. Moon, of Tungchow^ relates liow^ a good many 
years ago a missionary took up a poor boy and taught him a 
little English, sufficient for business purposes. "This enabled 



IN Til hi FLOWKUY hlNdDOM. ;^75 

him to secure successive positions vvitii lonM^ruu-s in Chinese 
ports. In llu! course of tiin<; he }ic(;iiii)ulut(!(i eonsidcirnhle 
properly. In tlie meantime IIk; lady who had lMii;j,lii him 
Enjilish rein rued lo America. Siie iiad various r(;verses of 
fortune, and iici- only son was rem<jved hy death. 'J'he (Jhlna- 
man never forgot tlie debt of gratitude lie ow(m1 lier. He 
placed funds in the hands of missionaries on two occasions to 
be forwarded to her, and offered to make constant provision for 
h(n- wants. This, however, she declined. After the death of 
her son he invited her to return to China, offering to support 
her. He died less than a year ago, and one of liis chief anx- 
ieties on his death-bed was to make adequate provision for his 
* mother,' as he called this lady. A China Inland missionary 
who saw him frequently during his last illness said that he was 
the noblest Chinaman he liad ever known. He wished to 
unite with the Baptist church in Tungchow, hut had it on his 
conscience that he had. made money in dishonest ways. The 
pastor inquired about how much had been thus obtained. He 
said he thought about four thousand taels (a tael is an ounce of 
silver). The pastor advised him in a quiet way to give away 
this sum before applying for baptism. About a year later he 
was accepted for baptism. He was a very generoas giver. He 
gave one thousand taels to endow an Anglo-Chinese school, 
and he and his wife each supported an evangelist. He also 
gave money to obtain a native helper for his f)astor, who was 
in poor health." 

Christianity has produced many noble characters among 
the Chinese. Dr. Graves says that when these people are 
renewed by the Spirit of God they often make stalwart 
Christians, and many ()\' them are an honor to the Christian 
name. "I have seen o])inm smokers, gamblers, idolaters and 



376 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

dishonest men transformed by the grace of God into honest 
Christian characters and earnest preachers of the truth." 

One of the most remarkable converts in China is Deacon 
Wong, of Shanghai. The Hev. K. T. Bryan, writing of this 
man, says: "God has greatly blessed him with worldly goods. 
This year one of his trusted agents swindled him out of nearly 
forty thousand dollars. His friends urged him to prosecute 
the man, but he would not do it. The Chinese of our church 
have a beautiful custom of meeting at the church on the first 
day of their New Year to warship God and to congratulate 
each other. Last Wednesday, the first day of their year, they 
had such a meeting. The old man led the meeting. His face 
was wreathed with smiles as he told of his great loss. He said 
that he was very happy about it; his heart was not in his 
wealth. 

" He is now over eighty years old. He came up to me 
to-day and said : ' I am so glad to hear that you are going to 
begin a Bible school. Can I come and join the class ? ' I 
consider it one of my greatest privileges to teach this dear ripe 
eld Christian. I expect to learn from him, too. He alone is 
worth far more than all the efforts that have been put forth in 
Shanghai to save the Chinese." 

Dr. Graves tells of a young man who was converted to 
the Christian religion in Canton, and who practically sold him- 
self as a slave that he might be able to work for Christ among 
the coolies of a sugar plantation. Another convert, Ch'am 
Kum Sing, Dr. Graves declares to have been one of the most 
devout, self-denying, earnest and consistent Christians he had 
ever known in any land. 

" Twenty-five years ago,'' writes the Rev. Hunter Corbett, 
of Chefoo, '^ a man named Lier, living in Wun Tung, died a 



IN THE FLOWERY KINGDOM. 377 

victim of the opium habit. A widow and an only son aged 
ten were left in destitution. The mother brought her son to 
Cheefoo to seek among strangers some means of earning a 
living. She went from door to door pleading for work. A 
soldier who heard her story said : ' Why do you not take your 
son to the missionary school on Temi^le Hill ? You will find 
kindness there if you can find it any place.' 

" She came with her son, who was received as a pupil. 
Later a place was found for the mother in the home of an 
English merchant living here. She proved so faithful and 
efiicient that she became invaluable, and received good wages for 
a person in that position. A few years later a fire broke out in 
a house where one of the daughters of the merchant's family 
and her husband had gone to spend their honeymoon. Mrs. 
Lier at the risk of her own life succeeded in rescuing: the 
couple, who without this timely help would certainly have 
perished. For this act of bravery and devotion she received a 
gold medal. She remained in the family for some years and 
then returned to England. The son proved a faithful student. 
He graduated from the Presbyterian College at Tengchow, and 
studied theology for nearly two years, expecting to enter the 
University, but his health failed, so that he was obliged to 
leave school. Later he recovered so as to be able to teach 
school, and in this work he continued for nearly ten years. 
He commanded the respect of all his pupils and of all who 
knew him. In 1893 he came to my study one morning, sa3''ing 
he had come to tell me that God had blessed him and answered 
his prayers. He said that it had long been the desire of his 
mother's heart as well as his own that he might by close 
economy earn enough to pay back to the mission all that had 
been spent on his education. He handed me a check for 



378 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

$337.00, the entire cost. Since then he has supported a 
nephew in the academy and an aged widow, a distant relative 
of the family. He has also fitted up a room for a dispensary 
under the direction of a missionary lady, and furnished a 
building for a free mission school. A few days ago he sent me 
$20.00 for famine relief, and is ready to help in every good 
work. He is an elder in our church, and he and his family 
are a bright light in this dark land. 

" Last week I was requested by a Christian Chinese lady 
of Tien Tsin to forward for her a draft for $700.00 to a retired 
missionary widow now living in America. When I arrived in 
China in 1863 this widow, whose husband had been killed by 
the rebels in China in 1862, was teaching two little boys Eng- 
lish. One of them in later years became connected with an 
English steamship company, and made himself so valuable 
that he commanded a fine salary. When he heard that the 
lady who had taught him and shown him kindness had lost 
her only son and was in feeble health, he entreated her to come 
to China, promising to support her to the. end of life and be to 
her a son. As she was unable to return, he invested property 
which yielded $700.00 yearly, to .be sent to his mother, as he 
called her, in America. Nearly two years ago this man died a 
triumphant Christian death. His last words to his wife and 
adopted son were : ' Do not forget my mother in America — I 
owe everything to her kindness and teaching. Send her the 
money yearly as I have arranged.' " 




A BETHLEHEM GROUP. 



XXVI. 



HOPE FOR SYRIA. 




In his "Land of the Saracens" 
Bayard Taylor gives a charming ac- 
count of a visit which he made to a 
community of Christian Syrians in 
the region of Lebanon. "Eden," he 
writes, " merits its name. It is a 
mountain joaradise inhabited by peo- 
ple so kind and simple-hearted that 
* assuredly no vengeful angel would 
ever drive them out with his flaming 
sword.' The inhabitants are Maron- 
ites, and they are the most thrifty, 
industrious, honest and happy people in Syria. Their villages 
are not concrete masses of picturesque filth as are those of the 
Moslems, but are usually scattered among orchards of mul- 
berry and poplar trees, washed by rills, and have the air of 
comparative neatness and comfort. The houses are of hewn 
stone and grouped in clusters under the shade of large walnut 
trees. In walking among them we received kind greetings 
everywhere, and everyone who was seated rose and remained 
standing as we passed. The women are beautiful, with spiritual, 
intelligent faces. . . . The children are charming creatures, 
and some of the girls of ten or twelve were lovely as angels. 
They came timidly to our tent (which the men had pitched as 

(381) 



382 



TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



before, under two superb trees beside a fountain), and offered 
us roses and branches of white jessamine." 

All Syria is not like this picture, we may be sure, but 
there is much that is pleasant to look upon in Syrian life. The 
Kev. Frederick G. Coan, who has spent most of his life in the 
East, says that the kindness which Syrians show to strangers 
and the mercy that they manifest toward the poor are very 
remarkable. "Seldom is a stranger refused entertainment in 

their humble homes, and 
the very poorest will share 
the last crust with the 
hungry." Mr. Coan says 
that when a few years ago 
thousands of refugees left 
Turkey for Syria and Per- 
sia, it was not so much Am- 
erican and English money 
as Syrian help that saved 
their lives. ''They are af- 
ectionate, warm-hearted and 
impulsive, rather than keen, 
hard and grasping. They 
are also very devoted and 
attached to those in whose service they have been, and make 
most excellent servants." They lack stability, but the gospel 
has worked wonders among many of them, and some marvelous 
transformations of character have been reported. 

Mr. Coan thinks that the Syrian Christians will compare 
very favorably with those of other nations who have had far 
superior advantages. "Take the attendance on services, church 
work, the effort to reach others, and the matter of self-support, 




WOMAN OF BAGDAD. 



^ 




HOPE FOR SYRIA. 



385 



and we have reason to be encouraged. Take the growth from 
year to year, and it is better than in America with all its advan- 
tages. Take the work itself, and it is far more economical than 
that at home, a"ad for every dollar spent ten times as much 
is accomplished. Our average contribution is now eighty cents 
a member. Considering the purchasing value of money here, 
and the price of labor, that is about as much as $6.00 per 
member at home. This is done too by a peoj^le who are very 

poor, terribly oppressed, and 
with very limited ways of earn- 
ing money." 

Mr. Coan gives several re- 
markable instances of the power 
of the gospel in transforming 
the Syrian heart. A notable 
convert was Shamiasha Kahoo- 
biyor. One day he was attacked 
by robbers, who told him they 
were going to kill him. He 
replied that he was not afraid, 
but that he was sorry for them, 
and would like to pray for them. 
When he had ended his prayer they had changed their minds 
and humbly apologized for their conduct. Another man who 
had stolen some wheat from his master was converted to Christ, 
and he went to tell his master what he had done. It was a 
dangerous undertaking, for it might have resulted in his being 
put to death, and he stood trembling like a leaf. 

" Absalom," asked his master, '' are you sick that you 
tremble so?" "Yes," he replied, "sin-sick. I have com- 
mitted a great wrong against you and against God. I have 

20 




WOMAN OF BAGDAD. 



386 



THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



stolen wlieat from your tliresliiiig floor, and I have come to con- 
fess it. Do anything you will with me — kill me — any thin »■ is 
better than the suffering which my guilt has caused me." 
His master looked at him a moment in astonishment and said : 
" Well, no man sent you here, and it must have been God 




A STREET GROUP IN SMYRNA. 



himself. If you had stolen a hundred loads I would forgive 
you. Go in j:)eace." 

Mr. Coan also tells of a young girl who attended his mis- 
sion school for some years, and whose parents finally took her 
away and forced her to marry a wicked man. Her husband 
took her to his mountain home, and for years she was lost sight 
of. One day one of the evangelists connected with the mis- 
sion, while on a tour, visited a certain village, where to his sur- 




A SYRIAN FRUIT SELLER. 



(387) 



HOPE FOR SYRIA. 



389 



prise lie found her. In spite of the cruelty of her husband 
she had continued steadfast in her faith, and had borne his 
treatment in such a sweet, patient spirit that his heart was 
finally touched and he became a Christian. With no books 




A WOMAN OF SYRIA. 



except the New Testament she taught the village children as well 
her husband to read, and her sowing was already beginning to 
bear fruit. 

Missionaries who are familiar with the prevailing condi- 



390 THE BBIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

tions in Syria are full of hope, and not a few believe with 
Mr. Coan " that the Syrian nation is again going to be a great 
missionary agency for the spread of the gospel all through 
Persia and the regions beyond." Certainly their hope is not 
without reason. The Syrians are natural students, learn 
quickly, have wonderful memories, and they are born orators. 
Intellectually they are above the average. " They have never 
inclined much toward mercantile pursuits, but seem to be more 
of the Levitical order, a people who are natural preachers and 
evangelists." Mr. Coan says that some of the young men of 
his church in Syria have filled pulpits acceptably in America ; 
others have studied medicine and are making successful physi- 
cians, while still others are doing well as contractors in Russia 
and elsewhere. 




DRESS OF A BETHLEHEM MATRON. 



(391) 



XXVII. 

THE REAL JEW. 

The Jew has had a place in the world's consciousness since 
Abraham's day, but only within the memory of men now liv- 
ing has he begun to find a place in the world's conscience. I 
say begun, for while justice to the Jew has grown in our day 
from a timid whisper to an audible cry, it is not yet such a 
cry as may be heard in the streets. " Think," says Esther, 
in Zangwill's "Grandchildren of the Ghetto," — "think of the 
part which the Jew has played — Moses giving the world its 
morality; Jesus, its religion; Isaiah, its millennial visions; 
Spinoza, its cosmic philosophy; Ricardo, its political economy; 
Karl Marx and La Salle, its socialism; Heine, its loveliest 
poetry; Mendelsonne, its most restful music; Rachael, its su- 
preme acting — and then think of the stock Jew of the Ameri- 
can comic papers. There lies the real comedy, too deep for 
laughter." Yet the Jews themselves have caught a glimpse of 
the coming dawn. '' Wait ! " says the Jew in the " Eebel 
Queen," " this is but a beginning. Wait some fifty years. 
Then the reign of the Jews will begin. First in western 
Europe, then in America. . . . For as we have been brought 
so low in a day of humiliation, we shall be exalted so high in 
tlie hour of triumph." 

The hate which the world has always cherished against 
the Jew — for that hate does not date at the cross, as is popularly 
supposed — is only less remarkable than the race itself " The 

(393) 



394 THE BRiaHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Jew," says Senator Vance, in his address on *' The Scattered 
Nation," " is beyond doubt the most remarkable man of this 
world — past or present. Of all the stories of the sons of men, 
there is none so wild, so wonderful, so full of extreme mutation, 
so replete with suffering and horror, so abounding in extraor- 
dinary providences, so overflowing with scenic romance. There 
is no man who approaches him in the extent and character of 
the influence which he has exercised over the human family. 
His history is the history of our civilization and progress in 
this world, and our faith and hope in that which is to come. 
From him we have derived the form and pattern of all that is 
excellent on earth or in heaven. If, as DeQuincey says, the 
Roman emperors, as the great accountants for the happiness 
of more men and men more cultivated than ever before were 
intrusted to the motions of a single will, had a special, singular 
and mysterious relation to the secret councils of heaven, thrice 
truly may it be said of the Jew. Palestine, his home, was the 
central chamber of God's administration. He was at once the 
grand usher to these glorious courts, the repository of the coun- 
cils of the Almighty, and the envoy of the divine mandates to 
the consciences of men. He was the priest and faith -giver to 
mankind, and as such, in spite of the jibe and jeer, he must 
ever be considered as occupying a peculiar and sacred relation 
to all other peoples of this world. Even now, though the Jews 
have long since ceased to exist as a consolidated nation inhabit- 
ing a common country, and for eighteen hundred years have 
been scattered far and near over the wide earth, their strange 
customs, their distinct features, personal peculiarities and their 
scattered unity make them still a wonder and an astonish- 
ment." 

The Jew is not without his faults, but it is a little remark- 



THE MEAL JEW. 395 

able that very few specific charges have ever been brought 
against him. Nobody has accused him of being a disturber of 
the peace ; nobody ever called him a loafer or a sot or a quarrel- 
some fellow ; nobody ever wrote him down in the criminal 
class ; nobody has accused liim of a lack of benevolence. We 
liave been content to hate him for what he is, perhaps, rather 
than for anything that he has done. But no, this sentence 
will not pass. There is one thing for which we hate him, and 
that is his inordinate love of money. Yet when we come to 
examine our hearts on this matter we are not sure whether it 
is his love of money that is so exasperating, or the fact that he 
is constantly getting in the way of our love of money, I am 
not sure but that this after all is the secret of the world's ao;e- 
long prejudice against the Jew. From Jacob's day, wherever 
the Israelite has gone, he has made money faster than his 
neighbors, and for this he has never been forgiven. As for 
the modern Jew's love of money, it is a most natural failing. 
As a famous Anglo-Jewish physician once said: "It should 
not be forgotten that all other means of distinction have been 
denied the Jew. He must rise by wealth or not rise at all, 
and if, as he well knows, to insure wealth, be to insure rank, 
respect, and attention in society, does the blame rest with him 
who endeavors to acquire wealth for the distinction which it 
will purchase, or with that society which so readily bows down 
at the shrine of Mammon ?" As this writer says, it is not pre- 
tended that the Jew is a miser and that he desires to acquire 
wealth merely for the loathsome gratification of boarding it. 
" The Jewish merchant is generally profuse in his expenditure; 
he has labored to gain riches on account of the respect which 
they will procure for him, and he is joroud of expending them 
with the same view." 



396 THE BRIGHT SIDE- OF HUMANITY. 

Moreover, the Jew is liberal. Indeed, as Mr. Clemens has 
said, his race is entitled to be called the most benevolent of all 
races of men. " The Jewish beggar is not impossible, perhaps; 
such a thing may exist, but there are few men that can say 
they have seen that spectacle. The Jew has been staged in 
many uncomplimentary forms, but so far as I know no drama- 
tist has done him the injustice to stage him as a beggar. 
Whenever a Jew has real need to beg, his people save him 
from the necessity of doing it. The charitable institutions of 
the Jews are supported by Jewish money, and amply. The 
Jews make no noise about it ; it is done quietly ; they do not 
nag and pester and harass us for contributions ; they give us 
peace, and set us an example — an example which we have not 
found ourselves able to follow." 

It is said that tlie Jews of New York contribute more 
than seven hundred thousand dollars a year to their own chari- 
table institutions in that city. "In charity," says the Rev. 
Madison C. Peters in his "Justice to the Jew," " not only do the 
names of Sir Moses Montefiore, Baron and Baroness de Hirsch, 
Mr. Jacob H. Schiff and Mrs. Esther Hermann shine cons|)icU' 
ously, but our Jewish fellow-citizens successfully conduct chari- 
ties covering every conceivable case of need and suffering." 
The Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society of the United States, which 
was established in 1882 to aid needy Bussian immigrants of 
the Jewish faith, expended about two millions of dollars in 
receiving, sheltering and distributing throughout this country 
the Bussian Jewish refugees. " Many were the animated and 
picturesque, yet pitiful scenes," says Dr. Bernheimer, " afforded 
by the arrival of the downtrodden and persecuted Jews, being 
cared for by thousands of their co-religionists in America." 

Early in the nineties the persecution of the Jews in Bussia 



THE REAL JEW. 397 

was renewed and new movements for their relief were organized. 
"Between 1889 and 1891," says Dr. Bernheimer, " a plan was 
under consideration, between Baron de Hirsch and those who 
were to become the trustees of his fund, with reference to the 
proposition of the former, to devote ten thousand dollars per 
month for the amelioration of the Russian and Eastern Euro- 
pean immigrants. In 1891 a deed of trust was executed by 
which the sum of two million four hundred thousand dollars 
was placed as capital in the hands of the trustees of the Baron 
de Hirsch Fund, the interest of which was to be used for the 
education and trainino- of immio;rants from Russia and Eastern 
Europe. Among the provisions was authority to disburse two 
hundred and forty thousand dollars of the capital for acquir- 
ing and improving land, allotting farm holdings, and erecting 
buildings for manual and agricultural training and general 
education. The income of the fund, $100,000 per annum, is 
used in sustaining an agricultural colony founded in 1893 at 
Woodbine, New Jersey, and the schools established there ; a 
trade school and English classes established in New York City, 
an emj^loymeiit, transportation and relief bureau in connection 
with the United Hebrew Charities of New York City, and 
public baths." 

The Baroness de Hirsch has since supplemented the noble 
work of her husband by a gift of one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars, and has j^romised to spend one million dollars 
towards the work of ameliorating the condition of the con- 
gested Russian and Eastern European population. "But the 
munificence of the Baron and Baroness de Hirsch," says Dr. 
Bernheimer, "while a magnificent part of the present Jewish 
charity and philanthropic work of the United States, must not 
overshadow the splendid results achieved independently by 



398 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

individuals and committees. When one considers that about 
half a million Russian and Eastern European Jewish immi- 
grants have arrived in this country since the Russian persecu- 
tions of 1881, and that the number of Jews in this country 
just before that time was estimated to be about a quarter of a 
million, the enormous task which those resident in the United 
States have had set for them may be conceived." 

With all his love for " the earth " no people are capable 
of higher or nobler aspirations than \\\q Jews. "May we not 
dream nobler dreams then than political independence?" asks 
Strelitski in " The Grandchildren of the Ghetto." " For all 
political independence is only a means to an end, not an end in 
itself, as it might easily become, and as it appears to other 
nations. . . . The restoration of Palestine or the acquisi- 
tion of a national centre may be a jDolitical solution, but it is 
not the spiritual idea, . . Our dispersal has saved Judaism 
and it may yet save the world ; for I prefer the dream that we 
are divinely dispersed to bless it, wind-sown seeds to fertilize 
its waste places ; to be a nation without a fatherland yet with 
a mother-tongue, Hebrew — there is the spiritual originality, 
the miracle of history. Such has been the real kingdom of 
Israel in the past — we have been 'sons of the law' as other 
men have been sons of France, of Italy, of Germany. Such 
may our fatherland continue with a 'higher life' substituted for 
'the law' — a kingdom, not of space nor measured by the vul- 
gar meteyard of an Alexander, but a great spiritual republic as 
devoid of material form as Israel's God, and congruous wdth 
his conception of the divine. And the conquest of this king- 
dom needs no violent movement — if Jews only practiced what 
they preach it would be achieved to-morrow; for all expres- 
sions of Judaism, even to the lowest, have become sublimities. 



THE REAL JEW. 399 

And this kingdom — as it has no space, so it has no limit; it 
must grow till all mankind are its subjects. The brother- 
hood of Israel will be the nucleus of the brotherhood of 
man." 

One of the most serious charges that has been brought 
against the Jew is that he is not patriotic. It has been claimed 
that it is impossible for him in the nature of things to be a 
patriot. In reply to this charge Mr. Peters says:* "You can 
hardly expect a race to love countries where they were thus 
oppressed, robbed and murdered. In the Middle Ages the 
Jews had no refuge but the grave. And yet in those benighted 
ages the Jews w^ere not wanting in patriotism in those countries 
where the governments occasionally treated them as human 
beings. In the Spanish battles they fought as bravest knights. 
Forty thousand were arrayed against Alphonso VI., vfhile he 
had as many Jews fighting on his side. They also fought 
valiantly for Alphonso VIII. Alphonso X., of Castile, 
rewarded them en rnasse for their assistance against Seville, 
and gave them, when the enemy's land was divided, a village 
which was called Aldea de los Judeos. They fought hero- 
ically for Don Pedro, even after the Black Prince had forsaken 
him, defending Burgos to the last man, saying 'that God 
would never have it that they should deny obedience to their 
natural lord, Don Pedro, or to his rightful successor' — a con- 
stancy that the prudent king, Don Enrico, very much esteemed, 
saying: 'Such vassals as those were, by kings and great men, 
w^orthy of much account, seeing that they held greater respect 
to the fidelity they owed to their king, although conquered and 
dead, than to the present fortune of the conqueror ;' and awhile 

* '• Justice to the Jew," by IMadison C. Peters. New Yuik : F. Tenny- 
son Xeely. 



400 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

after, receiving very honorable conditions, tliey gave them^ 
selves over and Don Enrico recognized publicly their patriot- 
ism," 

Writing of the Jew in later times, Mr. Peters says that 
until very recently, during the present century, the Jews were 
rarely ever permitted the opportunity of fighting for theii- 
country, but whenever they have been allowed to enter the lists 
they have proved that the contumely heaped upon them had 
not quenched their manhood. It is well known that during 
the Revolution a large proportion of the sinews of war were 
provided by patriotic Jews. Hayne Salomon, of Philadelphia, 
gave six hundred thousand dollars for this purpose, not one 
penny of which has ever been repaid to his heirs. Benjamin 
Levy, of Philadelphia, and Benjamin Jacobs, of New York, 
were among the signers of the Bills of Credit for the Contin- 
ental Congress in 1776, while Samuel Lyon, of New York, 
another patriotic Jew, signed similar bills in 1779. Isaac Moses 
and Herman Levy, of Philadelphia, contributed large sums 
for the support of the army in the field. A South Carolina 
Jew, Manuel Mordecai Noah, served as an officer on Washing- 
ton's staff and gave one hundred thousand dollars for the sup- 
port of the army. In an unpublished letter of Jared Sparks a 
story is told that at the outbreak of the Revolution Mr. Gomez^ 
a Jew of New York city, proposed to organize a company of 
soldiers for service. A member of the Continental Congress, 
to whom he unfolded his plan, remonstrated with him on ac- 
count of his age, he being then sixty-eight; but the old man 
coolly replied that he could stop a bullet as well as a younger 
man, and went his way. As Mr. Peters says, the part which 
the Jews took in the late war between the States was so con- 
spicuous that it would be difficult to pick out the most prom- 



THE REAL JEW. . 401 

ineiit men in the conflict, either on the Federal or the Con- 
federate side. 

In his everyday life the Jew is remarkable for liis law- 
abiding spirit. He is never a disturber against the existing 
order of the land. The prison hardly knows of his existence. 
Governor Vance, of North Carolina, when pardoning the only 
Hebrew in the North Carolina penitentiary, who was serving a 
ten years' sentence for manslaughter, indorsed on the document 
these words : " I take pleasure in saying that I sign the pardon 
in part as recognition of the good and law-abiding character of 
our Jewish citizens, this being the first serious case brought to 
my notice on the part of that people." 

Judge Briggs, of Philadelphia, in sentencing a Jew to 
prison for burglary, said : " You are the first Israelite I have 
■ever seen convicted of crime." No Jew was convicted of mur- 
der in the United States during the first century of the nation's 
existence. 

In a speech delivered at a Hebrew fair in Boston, General 
Butler said: "For forty years, save one, I have been conver- 
sant with the criminal courts of Massachusetts and many other 
States, and I have never yet had a Hebrew client as a criminal. 
But, you may say, that was because the Hebrews did not choose 
you for their lawyer. But this is not the true answer ; for I 
never yet saw a veritable Israelite in the prisoner's box for 
■crime in my life. And thinking of this matter as I was coming 
here, I met a learned judge in one of the highest courts of the 
commonwealth, of more than forty years' experience at the bar 
and bench, and I put the same question to him, and he bore 
witness with me to the same effect. He neither at the bar nor 
■on the bench had ever seen any Hebrew arraigned for crime." 

When Mordecai M. Noah, on his accession to the office of 



402 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

sheriff of New York, was taunted with the remark: "Pity 
Christians have to be hung by a Jew ! " he promptly replied : 
" Pity Christians require hanging at all." " In the statistics 
of crime," says Mr. Clemens, " his presence is conspicuously 
rare — in all countries. With murder and other crimes of 
violence he has little to do ; he is a stranger to the hangman. 
In the police court's daily long roll of ' assaults ' and 'drunken 
disorderlies' his name seldom appears." And all this, Mr. 
Clemens might have added, in spite of the rough handling 
which the Jew has received at the hands of the world. Shylock 
represented his race when he said : " He hath disgraced me and 
hindered me of half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at 
my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my 
friends, heated my enemies — and what's his reason ? I am a 
Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes ? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, 
dimensions, senses, affections, passions ? Is he not fed with the 
same food, hurt with the same weapon, subject to the same 
diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the 
same winter and summer as the Christian is? If you j^rick us 
do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you 
poison us do we not die? and if you wrong us shall we not 
reveno-e ? " . 

The beautiful home life of the Jew is at last being generally 
recognized. "Jews as a rule," says the Congregationallst, "are 
model husbands, fathers, sons and daughters, and their homes 
are almost invariably happy. The race is held together and 
held from deterioration by home love and systematic home 
training, which result naturally in the warm devotion of all 
the members of the family circle to each other's interests and 
hopes. In the Jewish home the Old Testament teaching finds 
its witness, and proves to be not severe, but genial and full of 




A JEW OF HUNGARY. 



(403) 



THE REAL JEW. 405 

help. An interesting instance of tins mutual love and care is 
found in a letter of Captain Dreyfus, written during his im- 
prisonment, to his little boys : ' Be good children and j^et your 
mother when she is sad. Be kind to your grandfather and 
grandmother, and play no tricks ujDon your aunts.' It is 
the common American fashion for mothers to pet their children 
— the petting of mothers is something which the children of 
America sadly need to learn." 

Nowhere is the Jew a cumberer of the ground. He is in 
every calling and in every calling he excels. " Poet, lawyer, 
painter, actor, statesman, physician, musician — there is not," 
says Walter Besant, " a branch of learning, art, or science in 
which the Jew is not in the front I'ank. Two thousand years 
of oppression have left no mark uj^on his mighty spirit. He 
steps from the lowest depths, where all the world flings mud 
upon him, straight to the front, and he stands there. "Be- 
hold ! " he says, " thus and thus have I done. Give me, too — 
me a j^lace among the immortals ! " 

The indestructibility of the Jew is an indestructible argu- 
ment in behalf of the worth of his race. In spite of all things 
he lives. Tyranny and dispersion have foiled to exterminate 
him. The Pharaohs of Egypt made his life a burden, but he 
lived. The crusaders covered him with calamities, but he 
lived. The inquisition crushed him, but he lives. And he 
lives everywhere. In many unexpected corners of the world 
representatives of this indestructible race have been discovered. 
Tliey are found in the dress of the natives, submitting to the 
laws of the land where they live, but always a separate 
people with a separate faith. " Jerusalem," says Mr. 1). L. 
AYoolmer, " will see an amazing sight if it calls upon all the 
remotest holes and corners to deliver up its children. Jews 



406 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

white, black, and brown from India, dusky from Abyssinia, 
arrayed in tlie costume and sporting the pigtail of China, as 
well as Jews rich and poor, high and humble, from Europe 
and America — all will bring with them the divers ways, 
f tongues and customs of their adopted countries, and assemble 
as one nation." 

Mr. Woolmer. has given us in a recent number of The 
Quiver an interesting glimpse of this scattered nation. 
" Amongst the most remote colonies," he says, " are the Jews 
of China who have aroused interesting inquiry and been the 
theme of many French writers. Early in the seventeenth 
century, and shortly after the Italian missionaries had come to 
Pekin, one of them, Matthew Kicci, i-eceived a morning call. 
His visitor wore the gorgeous Chinese dress, including the 
queue; but the figure and face were not Mongolian, and the 
smiling countenance was not in keeping with the dignified 
solemnity of a Chinaman. This gentleman's name was Ngai, 
and he had heard of the arrival of some foreigners who wor- 
shiped one Lord of heaven and earth, and who yet were not 
Mohammedans ; he belonged to the same religion, he explained, 
and had called to make their acquaintance. 

" Now Master Ngai made it clear that he was an Israelite, 
a native of Kaefung-foo, the ca23ital of Honan. He had come 
to Pekin to pass an examination for a mandarin degree, and 
had been led by curiosity and brotherly feeling to call at the 
mission-house. In his native city, he said, there were ten or 
twelve families of Israelites, and a synagogue which they had 
recently restored at the expense of 10,000 crowns, and they 
had a roll of the law four or five hundred years old. The 
missionary's letters described this synagogue. It occupied a 
space of between three and four hundred feet in length by 



THE REAL JEW. 407 

about a hundred and fifty in breadth, and was divided into 
four courts. It had borrowed some decorative splendor from 
China. The inscription in Hebrew : ' Hear, O Israel : the 
Lord our God is one Lord, blessed be the name of the glory of 
His Kingdom for ever and ever,' and the Ten Commandments 
were emblazoned in gold. Silken curtains inclosed the 
' Bethel ' which enshrined the sacred books, and which only 
the Rabbi might enter during the time of prayer. 

" Every detail of this place, with its incense, its furniture, 
and all its types of good things yet to come, is interesting. 
There in the last century the children of Israel at Kae-fung- 
foo worshiped the God of their fathers with the rites tliat 
pointed to the Messiah, of whose advent, as. far as it can be 
ascertained, they never heard until the arrival of the Italian 
missionaries. Learned men have entered into discussions as to 
whether these people were Jews or Israelites, whether they 
came to China from the Assyrian captivity or the Homan dis- 
persion. They themselves say that their forefathers came from 
the West ; and it is probable that the settlers arrived by way 
of Khorassan and Samerkand. They must have been numer- 
ous in the ninth century, for two Mohammedan travelers of 
that period describe a rebel, named Bae-choo, taking Canton 
by storm in a. d. 877 and slaughtering 120,000 Jews, Moham- 
medans, Christians, and Parsees. More than one Jew of Kae- 
funoj-foo is known to have srained the rio-ht to wear the little 
round button on the toj) of his cap so dear to the ambition of 
a Chinaman. The Tai-ping Bebellion dispersed the settlement, 
and the remnant who remain faithful to the memory of old 
traditions are chiefly poor and distressed. The Chinamen dis- 
tinguish them by the name of 'Tiao chiao' (the sect which 
pulls out the sinew), for these ' children of Israel eat not of 

21 



408 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the 
thigh, unto this clay.' They are said to often repeat the words 
of the dying Jacob, ' I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.' 
This is to them like the cry of an infant in the night. They 
have waited so long that it is little wonder if the words have 
lost their triumphant ring and their ancient accompaniment of 
faith in future blessings, 

"The Persian Jews, from whom the colony in China 
sprang, are interspersed over the Shah's country. The mis- 
sionaries of the London Society for promoting Christianity 
amongst the Jews make long tours to seek them out and shep- 
herd them. A convert from amongst them, the Rev. M. 
Norollah, found in 1890 that of his own peo23le in Ishfahan, 
numbering 5,000, not more than ten could read or write the 
language of the country. He started a school for the children 
in the very heart of this Mohammedan city. This school and 
others besides have flourished, and been the means of making 
friends with the parents." 

Mr. Woolmer says that of all the colonies in Asia, none 
seems to have preserved its traditions more carefully and lived 
up to them more worthily than the Jews in India. According 
to the last census they number 17,180. "Privileged travelers 
in the southwest have been shown a charter mucli older than 
the great English pledge of liberty. The first glance is not 
imposing. It is a copper plate, scratched with letters of such 
out-of-date character that they bear little resemblance to any 
that are now in use. But this is a priceless treasure to the 
Jews of Malabar. Some authorities believe it was granted 
about the year a. d. 500; others say that the renowned Ceram 
Perumal was the donor, and this prince appears to have been 



THE REAL JEW. 



409 



ill the zenith of his power in a. d. 750. All agree that the 
charter is at least a thousand years old. 

" According to the native annals of Malabar and the Jews* 
own traditions, 10,000 emigrants arrived on the coast about 
A. D. 70, shortly after 
the destruction of the 
Second Temple and 
the final desolation of 
Jerusalem, It is sup- 
})0sed that of these 
7,000 at once settled 
on a spot then called 
Mahodranpatna, but 
now known as Cran- 
ganore. 

"Unhappily, this 
flourishing community 
fell out amongst them- 
selves. After Jewish 
emigrants from Spain 
and other countries 
joined them a dispute 
arose, and they called 
an Indian king to set- 
tle it. The fable of 
the quarrel for an oyster was illustrated. The mediator took 
possession of the place ; that fat oyster became his, and death, 
and captivity represented the shells which he divided among-st 
the disputants. Some fugitives obtained an asylum from the 
Rajah of Cochin, and built a little town on a piece of ground 
which he granted to them close to his palace. 







AN EGYPTIAN JEW. 



410 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

" 111 this lovely native state live tlieir deseeiulaiits — two 
classes of Jews, one known as the Jerusalem or White Jews, 
the other as the Black Jews. The White trace their descent 
from the first settlers ; throughout the centuries they have pre- 
served the fair skin, fine features, and broad, high foreheads 
that usually belong to Europe, whilst amongst the men blonde 
or reddish curly beards j^revail. The Black Jews are too in- 
tensely black to be akin to the Hindoos; they are said to have 
sprung from Jewish proselytes from amongst the aboriginal 
races of the district. The Black and Wliite Jews inhabit the 
same quarter of the town of Cochin ; they follow the same 
customs, join in the same forms of prayer, but never inter- 
marry." 

It is said that the Jews of Cochin excel all others scat- 
tered over India in strict religious observances, but they are 
apparently quite distinct from the Jews or the Beni Israel of 
the North and West. "Some ladies of the Church of Eno- 
land Zenana Missionary Society," says Mr. Woolmer, "were 
welcomed into the houses of Jewesses in Calcutta. They 
recognized the noticeably Jewish features, in spite of the clear 
brunette complexion which belonged to neither the White nor 
Black Jews of the South. This community availed them- 
selves of day schools and Sunday schools started for the chil- 
dren, which have now become part of the organization of the 
Old Church Hebrew Mission, and responded to friendly over- 
tures. One Jewish lady spoke to her visitors of the return of 
her people to Jerusalem, and .she said: 'We will go in your 
arms.' ' You will probably go in our railway trains,' an- 
swered the English woman, and this idea satisfied both. 

" The Beni Israel, or Sons of Israel, of the North and 
West say that their first ancestors in India were persecuted 



THE REAL JEW. 411 

refugees from Persia, seven men and seven women who 
escaped from a shipwreck near Chaul, about thirty miles south- 
east of Bombay, and managed to save a Hebrew copy of the 
Pentateuch. Some assert that this happened eight hundred, 
others one thousand six hundred years ago. Their number is 
now reckoned as upwards of 5,000. They are said to resemble 
the Arabian Jews in features. They keep strictly the Mosaic 
fasts and feasts, yet in many houses visited by the ladies of the 
Zenana Bible and Medical Mission the New as well as the 
Old Testament is studied. 

" For nearly half a century a principal man of the com- 
munity has been in the service of the Free Church of Scot- 
land at Alibag, about twenty-four miles to the south of the 
city of Bombay. For in this place, at one time famous as the 
centre of a small pirate kingdom, handsome, intelligent chil- 
dren, with marked Semitic features, and names familiar in the 
Book of Genesis, delight in attending school. 

"In Karachi the Beni Israel are also numerous. One of 
the missionaries of the Church of England Zenana Missionary 
Society, who work amongst them, was invited to a wedding in 
the synagogue. She noticed that, as a part of the ceremony, 
the bride received a cup, and after raising it to her lips threw 
it down and broke it. This, some of the guests explained, was 
a sign that even in their mirth they remembered Jerusalem 
with sorrow. 

"To many such words and symbols are very real. Dur- 
ing the present year a rich Jew of Karachi has left his adopted 
home to build a synagogue in Jerusalem, where the Sultan has 
shown the Jews great toleration." Mr. Woolmer adds, however, 
that while the Turkish empire has been a refuge for them,, 
none can exceed the Mohammedans in cruelty and intolerance 



412 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

toward the Jew when they are roused to fanatical zeal for their 
prophet. "This has been specially manifest in Africa. Abys- 
sinia, perhaps, has the oldest colony of Jews. They go by the 
name of Falashas, which means exiles or emigrants, and claim 
an ambitious origin. King Solomon, they believe, added the 
Queen of Sheba to his many wives, and their son Menelek was 
educated in Jerusalem. On his growing to manhood the Jew- 
ish nobles foresaw political disturbances, and begged the king 
to send him to his mother. King Solomon consented on con- 
dition that each Jew should send his first-born son with Mene- 
lek to Abyssinia. There he became king of Abyssinia, and 
his Israelite companions married native women, so a new nation 
sprang into existence." 

George William Curtis somewhere reminds us that the 
story of the Wandering Jew has a pathos beyond the usual in- 
terpretation. Everyone is familiar with the legend of the Jew 
who refused to comfort Christ as he toiled under the weight of 
the cross, and who was condemned to tarry until he came, and 
so wanders around the world until his second coming. It is 
the symbol, says Mr. Curtis, of the restlessness of the race 
roaming through Christendom homeless and rejected. Many 
a Christian regards it as the curse of the joeople that crucified 
the Redeemer. "This," says Mr. Curtis, "is the common 
theory of the origin of the traditional antipathy to the Jews, 
and undoubtedly this is with many persons a vague justifica- 
tion of the feeling with which the Jew is regarded. But 
should it be nothing to such persons that when, as they believe, 
the Creator would incarnate himself, he became a Jew ? Or, 
again, do they reflect that if it was in the eternal decrees that 
the sins of men were to be atoned and condoned by the inno- 
cent sacrifice, those who accomplished the sacrifice were but 



THE REAL JEW. 413 

the agents of the divine will ? Are all such ingenious specu- 
lations other than devices to explain and justify a mere preju- 
dice of race, such as some African tribes cherish against 
people of white skins? Those who find in such prejudice a 
profound significance will continue to plead the feeling as its 
own sufficient reason. But honorable men will be careful how 
they carelessly use the name of a race to which the religion, 
the literature, the art, the civilized progress of humanity, are 
so greatly indebted, as v. term of utter derision and scorn." 



XXVIII. 

THERE ARE TURKS AND TURKS. 

After all that has been set down to the discredit of the 
unspeakable Turk, it cannot be maintained that he is altogether 
devoid of worthy traits. As has been said, there is a sub- 
stratum of generosity and nobility in his character, whatever 
may appear on the surface. Dr. Francis E. Clark thinks that 
much of the good in the Turkish character is to be accounted 
for very largely by the good features of his religion ; " for, 
mixed with superstition and imposture as the faith of Mo- 
hammed is, there is something in it of strength and virility." 
It demands unquestioning obedience and outspoken allegiance 
from all who profess to be governed by it. No Mohammedan, 
says Dr. Clark, is ashamed of his faith. " Our soldier guard, 
who always accompanies us, when the hour of prayer comes 
will dismount from his horse and prostrate himself towards 
Mecca, by the roadside or even at the top of the house, to pray 
when we are resting at noon, no matter how many pairs of 
curious eyes are upon him. Many and many a time have I 
seen a camel driver, poor, untutored man that he is, but con- 
fident of his faith in God and the great prophet, kneeling in 
the grass by the wayside while his tethered camels browse near 
by, offering his prayer to the great God with no fear of ridi- 
cule to restrain him from his oft-repeated devotion. As we lie 
down to rest in the guest cham.ber of the elder of Baila we hear 
the musical voice of the muezzin floating from the humble min- 

(417) 



418 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

aret near by calling out to all the faithful that ' God is great ! 
God is great! There is only God and Mohammed is his prophet. 
Come to prayer ! Come to prayer ! ' As these sounds strike 
our drowsy ears we learn the secret of the vitality of the Turk- 
ish nation and the Mohammedan religion. There is truth 
enough in it to keep it sweet and from going to utter decay. 
There is truth enough within it to maintain within the nation 
the germs of a lesolute and uncompromising manhood." 

" Judging from appearances only," says Edmondo de 
Amicis, " the Turkish inhabitants of Constantinople are the 
most civilized and polite people of Europe. In the most soli- 
tary of the streets of Stamboul a stranger may walk unmo- 
lested ; he may visit the mosques in prayer time with much 
more security of meeting with respect than a Turk would have 
in our churches ; in the crowd one encounters no insolent look 
or word nor even one of curiosity; laughter is rare, and noise 
and disturbance among the people very rare ; there is no ^^ublic 
indecency of any kind ; the market is but a shade less dignified 
than the mosque; everywhere a great sobriety of words and 
gestures ; no songs, no clamorous voices, nothing to disturb the 
quiet passenger ; faces, hands and feet quite clean ; ragged and 
dirty garments are extremely rare; a universal and reciprocal 
manifestation of respect among all classes." M. de Amicis 
insists, however, that this is only on the surface, and that 
there is unspeakable corrujotion in the concealed life of the 
people. 

Speaking of the politeness of the Turks, Mr. Leech says : 
" The right hand is the hand pure, with which alone they can 
eat and perform all the most solemn, sacred, public and private 
acts ; therefore when two equals meet they touch each other's 
right hand, and quickly afterward lightly touch their mouths, 



THERE ARE TURKS AND TURKS. 



419 



caiTving their hands to their foreheads. If the equality is not the 
same, the lower inclines the liead and body, and in saluting the 
inferior class one is bound to place the right hand on the heart; 
but in the presence of a high dignitary it is always etiquette to 
make the same gesture with the two hands and bend the body 
low. Sometimes, in gallantries and compliments between men, the 
cheeks are kissed, which is the highest mark of love and friend- 




MOHAMMEDANS AT THEIR DEVOTIONS. 

ship. They rarely demand of one another the news of the 
family, and never ask about the women ; the laws forbid the 
men to salute the women." 

Perhaps the most virtuous, certainly the most harmless, 
people of the Turkish stock are the Yakuts of Siberia. They 
are exceedingly hospitable, and, unlike the hospitality of most 
Asiatic peoples, it is not limited to any particular time. If the 



420 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

traveler stays a month lie is just as well treated as if he staid 
only a day. They have great reverence for aged people and 
follow their advice. The chiklren marry according to the 
choice of their parents, whom they continue to obey when they 
are no longer under their roof. The Yakuts have the grace of 
forgiveness, and revenge is scarcely known among them. They 
are quick to make friends the moment an offender shows any 
sign of wishing to be forgiven. Some of the women are quite 
pretty, though, like many other Asiatics, strangers to the vir- 
tues of soap and water, and are always virtuous. " These 
quiet, gentle, upright and extremely patient people," says M. 
Niemojowski, "never give way to their feelings." Cunning, 
deceit and hypocrisy, according to this writer, are unknown 
among them. Their word can always be relied upon ; their 
promise once given is faithfully kept ; and it is said that in the 
annals of their quiet life there has never been one instance of 
cheating, still less of serious crime. They are, on the whole, 
a lamb-like and passive people. 

The Turkomans, who belong to the Turkish stock, are 
scarcely less remarkable for their hospitality than the Arabs. 
Vambery tells us that once in his travels he came with his 
party upon an out-of-the-way encampment of these people, and 
was made welcome in the tent of one Allah Nazr. " This old 
Turkoman," says Vambery, "was beside himself from joy that 
heaven had sent him guests. The recollection of that scene 
will never pass from my mind. In spite of our protestations 
to the contrary, he killed a goat, the only one he possessed, to 
contribute to our entertainment. At his second meal, which 
we partook with him the next day, he found means to procure 
bread also, an article that had not been seen for weeks in his 
dwellino;. While we attacked the dish of meat he seated him- 



TllERb: ARE TUiiRS AND TURKS. 421 

self opp()site us and wept, in the exactest sense of the expres- 
sion, tears of joy. Allah Nazr," continues Vambery, "would 
not retain any part of the goat he had killed in honor of us. 
The horns and hoofs of the goat were burned to ashes, and were 
to be employed for the galled places on the camels." 

The Turk is not without his friends amons; those who 
know him best. That he has very bad traits is not to be gain- 
said, but not a few foreigners living in Turke}^ have insisted 
that where the Turk is found free from government influence 
he is, as a rule, a very clever fellow — manly, honest and 
straio'htforward. 



XXIX. 

THE POLITE PERSIAN. 

Theke are no darker pages in literature than those which 
describe, or profess to describe, the traits of the Persian peojjle. 
Yet it should be remembered that nearly all travelers who have 
written about the Persians have had in mind the corrupt life 
of the court, or the unspeakable abominations of the harem, 
and that the plain middle classes among whom are always to 
be found the most solid elements of character have been almost 
entirely overlooked. With all their vices the Persians have 
at least one or two traits which we can afford to imitate. For 
instance, they never destroy a scrap of bread or a blossom on 
a tree, because the bit of bread or the fruit which may 
come from the blossom will sustain life. The Rev. S. G. 
Wilson, a missionary in Persia, who has given us in his 
"Persian Life and Customs" a rather gloomy view of the 
character of the people among whom he labors, declares that 
nevertheless they are not without good traits of character, and 
admits that they are charitable, hospitable, contented, indus- 
trious, temperate, not bloodthirsty nor quarrelsome. Their 
gentleness, affability and courteous manner, though at times 
insincere, cannot be denied. They are eminently a sociable 
people, vivacious, entertaining and polite. They have elabo- 
rate rules of etiquette and many compliments suitable for every 
occasion. They never neglect a visit of congratulation or con- 
dolence, and they have a custom of honoring the physician 

(425) 



426 TRE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

with an hour's social chat before troubling him about the 
symptoms of the sick person for whom he is called in. 

While the women are not looked upon as the equals of 
the men, their sharp wit often enables them to gain the ascend- 
ency over their more lethargic husbands, and they are some- 
times able to sway the affairs of the home at their own sweet 
will. It is not to be denied, however, that the seraglio is a 
gilded cage of which nothing good can be said. The women 
are often very handsome, though their natural charms are often 
destroyed by painting and smoking. Mr. Wilson says that 
there has of late been some advance in the education of Persian 
women. The wives of some enlightened officials are now able 
to read, and not a few are learning music and other accom- 
plishments. 

The hosjDitality of the peo]3le is extended to foreigners 
almost as freely as to the people of their own religion. Even 
a nobleman, it is said, would not think it anything remarkable 
to ask a traveling peasant or peddler who had called at his 
palace with goods for sale to sit down and partake of a meal 
with him. 

"In their several relations," says Dr. Brown, "they are 
more lively than their co-religionists, the apathetic Turks. A 
visitor is received with the Mohammedan salutation of ' Peace 
be with you,' to which the reply is, ' With thee be peace,' while 
dear friends or relatives are embraced and kissed thrice on the 
cheek, and after the pious exclamation of ' B'lsmillah ' (in the 
name of God), the pipes of the kind known as calleeoons, in 
which the smoke is mellowed by being drawn through water, 
are produced and all ceremony is at an end." 

The Persian group embraces, in addition to the Persians 
proper, the Kurds, the Baluchi, the Afghans, the Paropamisans. 



THE POLITE PERSIAN. 427 

All of these races have more of a Caucasian than a Mongolian 
cast of countenance. The modern Persians are not descended 
from the race who defeated Xenophon. The ancient Persians 
were celebrated for their handsome persons, tall stature, and 
the beauty of their women. The modern race have a fair 
share of good looks ; their features are regular, their counte- 
nance oval, hair glossy and luxuriant, and their eyes dark and 
soft. The Kurds are a strong, hardy people. In their devo- 
tion to their chiefs they have been compared to the old Scotch 
Highlanders. " One young man takes charge of his chief's 
firelock, another of his cloak, a third of his pipe, and a fourth 
stands by his horse's head as he mounts." The Baluchi, 
though robbers, are not ungenerous, but are true to their word, 
hospitable, and treat their women with respect. The Afghans 
are lovers of home and are very hospitable. " No man will 
injure his worst enemies so long as they are under his 
roof." 

Some of the most inspiring examples of heroism in the 
history of missions are among the Persian converts to Chris- 
tianity. Probably no greater Christian hero has lived than 
Mirza Ibrahim, a Persian convert from Mohammedanism. 
When he accepted Christ his wife, children and property were all 
taken from him, and though sick and very feeble he was obliged 
to flee. At Oroomiah he found refuge with the missionaries, 
but he insisted upon preaching Christ and he was soon arrested, 
brought before the governor, beaten, tormented, and cast into 
prison. From the prison in Oroomiah he was removed to 
Tabriz, where he was placed in an underground dungeon with 
an iron collar about his neck. Even there he persisted in 
speaking of Christ. He won the heart of his jailer, who gave 
him liberty to see his friends, read his Bible and speak to his 

2i 



428 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

fellow-prisoners. Ten of the eleven criminals in jail he won 
over to Christ. 

Miss G. F. Holliday, a missionary in Taboiz, Persia, says 
that with regard to their natural traits the Persians are about 
like other people, and as an evidence that they are not wholly 
bad relates the following touching incident: 

"Twenty years ago this province suffered terribly from 
famine, and many well-to-do persons were obliged to part with 
all their possessions to sustain life, breadstuffs rising to five and 
six times their nominal price. The father of a family in 
Taboiz was reduced to utter want, and knew of no quarter to 
ask help except from a wealthy friend in a village, so he set 
out to try to borrow from him. Arriving in the evening he 
found his friend occupied with a party of guests, so there was 
no opportunity to present his request. Bed-time came, and he 
lay down to rest on the floor with a heavy heart unable to for- 
get his hungry wife and children, and fearful as to the success 
of his application. In the darkness he perceived a soft move- 
ment at the head of his bed, but thought it was the house cat 
wandering among the sleeping guests. As he tossed to and fro 
and sleep came not, he put his hand under his pillow and felt 
something hard. It was a purse containing a sum of money 
which his host, divining his errand and willing to spare him 
the humiliation of asking, had delicately placed there." 

Miss Holliday relates how she met an eminent soldier to 
whom she told the story of the atonement. Fixing his eyes 
earnestly on her, he said : " Did Jesus die to save your race 
only, or did he offer himself for us also ? " " Please," adds 
Miss Holliday, " pass the question on to Christian America." 

Although it is very doubtful whether the Armenians are 
of the Persian stock, they bear a close resemblance to the Per- 



THE POLITE PERSIAN. 429 

sians, and may be conveniently noticed here. The recent per- 
secutions of these people by the Turks has brought them into 
wider notice than any other people of the East with the excep- 
tion of the Chinese, but as yet little is really known about their 
true character, so conflicting are the reports which travelers 
have brought concerning them. They are Christians in name, 
but whether they are Christians in reality is still a mooted 
question. It is claimed by many that the ancient faith has been 
quite overwhelmed by heathenish superstitions. Their church 
is more like the Greek than the Roman, but their system of 
monasteries is much like that of the Buddhists of Tibet. The 
Armenians of Armenia are farmers ; in Persia they are mer- 
chants, while in India "they divide with the Jews and Parsees 
the almost entire monopoly of money-lending." While many 
travelers regard them as a weaker race than the Turks, they 
are said to be "more amenable to European manners and ways 
than most Orientals." They are described as serious, laborious, 
intelligent and hospitable. 



XXX. 

THE KOREANS. 

While sharing many of the characteristics of the other 
peoples of the East, the Koreans are in many respects a type 
by themselves. In personal appearance they are strikingly 
dissimilar to their nearest neighbors, both the Chinese and 
the Japanese, though the oblique Mongolian eyes are always 
present. Among the Chinese the physiognomy is so uniform 
that one is continually puzzled to identify an individual. 
Among the Koreans the variety of features is very remarkable. 
Their noses may be straight or aquiline or broad or snub; 
their hair runs all the way from a black to a russet-brown ; 
here and there is a full mustache, while on many faces a few 
carefully tended hairs do duty for that feature as among the 
Chinese; the mouth may be a wide, gaping cavity or small and 
refined ; the eyes vary from dark brown to hazel ; the brow, so 
far as can be seen, is often lofty, wdiile the general physiognomy 
indicates quick intelligence, though little strength of will. As 
a race they are very handsome, though Mrs. Bishop describes 
the figures of the women as figureless, squat and broad. It 
should be said, however, that the ugliness of their figures is ex- 
aggerated by the execrable costumes which they w^ear. The 
average height of the men is five feet four and a half inches, 
a'nd they are of excellent physique. 

Missionaries in Korea bear testimony to the mental adroit- 
ness of the people. They are quick of perception and have a 

(430) 



THE KOREANS. 431 

remarkable talent for learning foreign languages, wliicli they 
speak with excellent accent. 

Everywhere — in government, in war, in education, in so- 
cial relations, and in morals — Chinese influence predominates,, 
and, as Mrs. Bishop has said, in all these respects Korea is but 
a feeble reflection of her powerful neighbor; "and though since 
the war the Koreans have ceased to look to China for assist- 
ance, their sympathies are with her, and they turn to her for 
noble ideas, cherished traditions, and moral teachings. Their 
literature, superstitions, system of education, ancestral worship, 
culture, and modes of thinking are Chinese. Society is organ- 
ized on Confucian models, and the rights of parents over chil- 
dren, and of elder over younger brothers, are as fully recog- 
nized as in China. 

It must be admitted that these archaic people have many 
vices. They are appalling liars, pastmasters in the art of 
cheating, and it is said have every vice possible to a mild- 
mannered heathen nation with the one exception of the use of 
opium. Yet all travelers agree that they are by nature a khidly 
people, hospitable, exceedingly polite, and in many ways so 
charming that one quickly learns to love them in spite of their 
glaring faults. Their politeness has a certain manly tone about 
it that is peculiarly attractive. An observing writer, who has 
lived among them, says one cannot help feeling that they have 
in them the capacity for a high development, when once the 
truths of the gospel have permeated the mass of the people, 
and when they can live in security of life and property under 
wise laws righteously administered. 

Much of the apparent laziness for which they are noted is 
simply apathy produced by the insecurity of their property 
and rights. They lack the motive for work. With the excep- 



432 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

tion of a few rich merchants and owners of large estates, the 
people are very poor and live from hand to mouth, in a way 
which we of the West can scarcely conceive as possible. 

The Koreans are noted for their love of nature. They 
live out of doors a large part of the year and are particularly 
fond of country excursions. A band of scholars " will go to 
some j)ictueresque spot and there compose spring poetry in 
Chinese." Another party will devote the day to archery, at 
which the Koreans are very skilful. Lovers of quiet nature, 
as they are, it is not strange that they should be willing to en- 
dure anything for the sake of peace. They know how to quar- 
rel, and they can pitch their voices fearfully high, gesticulate 
with great violence and fairly rage at each other, but in a few 
moments it is all over, and the enemies who were dangerously 
near to annihilating each other may be seen sitting together 
peacefully smoking their pijDcs. The Korean gentleman has 
a positive distaste for saying unpleasant things, and it is said 
that if there is a disagreeable duty of this sort to perform he 
will invariably hire a third party to do it for him. 

Perhaps the most striking trait of these people is their 
love for their children. They have an unusual share of par- 
ental affection and devote a great deal of time to amusing their 
little ones. Children may often be seen riding astride the 
backs of father or mother. It cannot be said that they are 
as carefully trained to obedience as they should be, though 
they always show respect for their parents and other elderly 
people. 



XXXI. 

THE CHILDREN'S PARADISE. 

SiAM is the children's paradise. Probably nowhere else 
in the world does one meet with so many manifestations of 
parental fondness. The Siamese have more than an ordinary 
share of natural affection, and Bowring tells us that every- 
where he went in Siam he saw fathers carrying their offspring 
in their arms, and *' mothers engaged in adorning them." 
" The king was never seen in public by us without some of 
his younger children accompanying him, and we had no inter- 
course with the nobles where numbers of little ones were not 
on the carpets grouped around their elders and frequently re- 
ceiving attention from them." 

A Roman Catholic missionary testifies to the wonderful 
docility and sweetness of Siamese children and the care of the 
parents to make themselves beloved and respected by them. 
The Siamese parent answers to the prince for the conduct of 
his children. He shares in their chastisements, and delivers 
them up when they have offended. "If the son takes flight 
he never fails to surrender himself when the prince apprehends 
his father or his mother or his other collateral relations older 
than himself to whom he owes respect." The large sums fre- 
quently expended in the decoration of little children with ank- 
lets, bracelets, necklaces and chains of gold of great value 
testify to the prevailing parental fondness. The great beauty 
of the children has attracted the notice of nearly all travelers, 

(433) 



434 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANIIT. 

and they are said to be as amiable as they are beautiful, seldom 
being spoiled by the affection which is lavished upon them. 

The Siamese have other noble traits scarcely less noticeable. 
The modesty of the people, in spite of the scanty dress of both 
sexes, is everywhere noticeable. Chastity is a natural charac- 
teristic, and any approach to indecency would be visited by the 
immediate and severe disapprobation of the whole community. 
This implies, of course, that the condition of woman is better 
in Siam than in most Oriental countries. While they have 
little education, many of them are good musicians and excellent 
managers of domestic affairs, and they are allowed large free- 
dom in choosing a sphere for making a living. They are often 
to be seen in charge of boats, and in the country they are 
busied with agricultural pursuits. 

While the Siamese have, as a matter of course, the defects 
and vices which are to be expected in a half savage people gov- 
erned through many generations by the capricious tyranny of 
an Oriental despotism, " there can be no question as to the 
general soundness of their moral character, allowances being 
made for the natural conditions of the country which are not 
suited to the development of the hardier virtues." They are a 
gentle and amiable people, cheerful, inoffensive almost to 
timidity, liberal in their charities, and strict in enforcing 
decorum between the sexes. They are very acute and often 
witty in conversation, and resemble the Chinese in their aptitude 
for imitation. They are not addicted to drinking, and lying, 
an almost universal Oriental infirmity, is rare among them. 
They are sincere, affectionate, kind and happy in their home 
life, and their ideas of justice, if peculiar, are not ineffective. 
Murder is punished with death, and if a murder or suicide be 
committed all the inhabitants of the houses within a few yards 



THE CHILDREN'S PARADISE. 435 

of the spot on wliicli the crime has been perpetrated are held 
responsible for the crime and heavily fined. This, of course, 
makes the people anxious to prevent quarrels and very careful 
of life. 




(438) 



WOME^f OF URUGUAY. 



XXXII. 

IN SPANISH AMERICA. 

While the peoples of all Spanish-American countries are 
more or less related, the degrees of relationship are so numerous 
that no two communities are alike. It is manifestly impossible, 
therefore, in a volume like this to attempt anything like a 
comprehensive treatment of the traits of all the Central and 
South American races. I have already spoken of the people 
of Brazil, the Portuguese part of South America. The traits 
of the Brazilian are not unlike those of the Spanish- American 
wherever found. Of the latter Dr. Robert Brown says : " He 
is as polite as any gentleman of Castile and hospitable far be- 
yond his inhospitable ancestors of old SjDain ; " and he adds a 
pretty j)icture of their hospitable ways : "In passing by an 
open door in a Spanish-American village you have only to 
peep in at the snug family party swinging in a hammock. 
You bow and say bonos dios, or 7iuchos, as the case may be, and 
without a thought of your having infringed any rule of eti- 
quette you can walk in, exchange cigarettes, and soon be on 
terms, the intimacy of which would require at least a year, and in 
some places a good many years, to cultivate to the same extent 
in Europe. The olive, black-eyed senoritas at first modestly 
look down, but soon they lose their reserve and laugh merrily 
at the broken Spanish of senores los estrangeros Tngleses. 

(439) 



440 THE BRIGHT SIDE OP HUMANITY. 

Most likely they will present you with a flower at painting — a 
gift valueless in itself, but as a courteous expression of kindly 
good will exceedingly appropriate." 

The Indians of Central America have never received the 
notice which their character deserves. The Rev. E. H. Hay- 
maker, a missionary in Guatemala, in a letter to the author 
says : " We have here to-day in the Quiche and Maya tribes 
the same people with the same capabilities as those who a few 
centuries ago built palaces and temples of hewn stone and 
adorned them with a cement second to none in Europe ; who 
had advanced in their systems of land tenure beyond what we 
have reached, though in the direction in which we are tending ; 
who had abolished the human sacrifice and religious canni- 
balism of their ancestors as barbarous, and who prevented vice 
by fomenting industry. A number of the very best musicians 
(and we have some good ones), several of the most erudite 
historians, the majority of the broadest minded men belong to 
the old Indian people. Rufino Barrios, far and away the most 
original and resourceful political and military genius tliat 
Guatemala has ever had, had only pure Indian blood coursing 
through his veins, and he had a post not quite so large, but no 
less difficult to fill than that which was so nobly filled by our 
Washington, and he did it just as well." 

Mr. Haymaker says that not a single aboriginal son of 
Guatemala to-day has had half as good a chance to make some- 
thing of himself as falls to the lot of the average child in the 
United States, and adds : " Let them have half a chance, and 
they will show what is in them. But so long as they are 
systematically brutalized with liquor for the revenue, robbed 
without or with pretext, deceived by priest, judges,, foreigners, 
etc., it is simply outrageous to expect them to give a fruitage 



IN SPANISH AMERICA. 441 

of virtue. Wherever they have had gooil opportunity there 
have been remarkable results." 

Among the Indian tribes of South America none is more 
interesting than the Peruvians, with whose early history every 
child is familiar. While they have to-day many vices which 
have been engendered by centuries of oi)pres8lon and bad 
foreign example, they still impress the traveler as a people of 
substantial character. They are very suspicious, but Mr. 
Clements Markham testifies that this feeling soon disappears 
when the occasion for 

it is found not to exist. ^^^ 

On the other hand, Mr. ''^" Ml^immm^m. v 

Markham says that they 
are intelligent, patient, 
obedient, loving amongst 
each other, and partic- 
ularly kind to animals. 
^'Crimes of any magni- 
tude are hardly ever 
heard of amongst them, 

, -^ , . PERUVIAN INDIAN. 

and i am sure there is 

no safer region in the world for the traveler than the plateaux 
of the Peruvian cordillera." Speaking of the courage of the 
Peruvians, he says: "That the Indians are not cowardly or 
mean-spirited when once aroused was proved in the battles 
which they fought under the banner of the Tupac Amaru in 
1871, and a j)eople who could produce men capable of such 
heroic constancy as was displayed by the mutilated heroes of 
Asillo should not be accused of want of courage. AVhen well 
led they make excellent soldiers." 

The Chaco Indians, or Great Desert Indians, are of 




442 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

fairer complexion than most of the American tribes, and 
have no fondness for the hideous nose or ear ornaments 
so prominent among their neighbors. In war they wear a 
defensive mail, and all prisoners taken by them are kindly 
treated and adopted into the tribe. "At home the Chaco 
builds a matted tent by planting two upright poles with 
another for a ridge, covering these with mats, and for a bed he 
uses a hammock swung between two poles, or it may be between 
two convenient palms. His tent, however, is solely for protec- 
tion against the rain, for in dry weather he prefers to lie in the 
lap of mother earth, and use for his canopy the blue vault of 
heaven, though for his wife he provides a j)arasol of ostrich 
feathers, jDartly to minister to her vanity and partly to protect 
her more sensitive organization." As has been said, the work 
of chivalric regard for the comfort and pleasure of his wife is 
one of the redeeming traits of the Chaco's character. " It 
shows him to be neither wholly a savage nor utterly bad, for 
true manliness, as well as true civilization, is always associated 
with respect and tender regard for all that is weak or helpless, 
and particularly for the more delicate sex of our race, regard- 
less of the color of the complexion or the^ particular state of 
civilization." 

The Guianian Indian is very hospitable, and the visitor to 
his house is sure of getting the best to be had. Theft is un- 
usual among themselves, though each tribe accuses the other of 
being addicted to it. They are fond of liberty, and slavery has 
never been brooked by them. They are very sociable and 
fond of paying visits, often spending a full fourth of the year 
in going to see their neighbors. " Time to him," says Dr. 
Robert Brown, "is nothing. Such a commodity was 'made for 
slaves,' or white men ; like Falstaff, to the Indian it is ' super- 



m SPANISH AMERICA. 



443 



fluous to demand the time of the day.' Yet, though punctuality- 
is with him a virtue so minute as scarcely to be taken count of, 
when he goes ofi* on a journey, and requires to be at home 
on a certain date, he will leave a kind of calendar with his 
friends, consisting of a knotted string, each knot representing 
a day. A knot is untied on the morning he is absent, and if 
he is well he will arrive on the day the last knot is untied." 

The Araucanians 
who inhabit Southern 
Chili are remarkable for 
their politeness and the 
value which they place 
upon etiquette. They 
are skilful mechanicians 
and manufacture all of 
their accouterments in a 
workmanlike m a n n e r. 
They despise all " make- 
believe," and have no 
use for Yankee electro- 
plated spurs, bit or sad- 
dle accouterments. They 
even despise gold for in- 
dustrial purposes, and will have only solid iron or silver. 
They excel in oratory, of which they are very fond. 

The Rev. H. L. Weiss, a missionary in Chili, relates that 
on passing through the southern part of the country he 
stopped at the house of an Indian to ask for oats for his 
horse. The Indian had nothing but some green corn, which 
he had intended for his own family to eat, but he insisted on 
pulling it and giving it to the missionary's horse, while 




CIVILIZED ARAUCANIANS. 



441 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

the women of the family busied themselves in preparing the 
best dinner they could serve for the missionary and his 
wife. 

"Last Sunday," says Mr. Weiss in a letter to the author, 
"I went into the country to hold services in the house of a 
Chileno, who had been recently converted to Christianity. 
This man had taken special pains to have everything in readi- 
ness for us, and when I arrived he led me to a neat room, say- 
ing that it was reserved especially for pilgrims and the brethren. 
On the shelf were Spanish papers, books and tracts, and every- 
thing was in order. His wife took special care in entertaining 
us, and served us at the table with napkins and a white table- 
cloth. We were delighted with our host, and felt that greater 
kindness could not have been shown us even in the homeland. 
The Chileno invited all his neighbors to the services, and we 
had a delightful time. Men of forty, sixty and seventy years 
were there learning to read their Bible and to sing hymns." 
Mr. Weiss adds that some of his converts would put many a 
Christian in the homeland to shame with their newly acquired 
knowledge of the Bible. 

Mr. Weiss says that the Chilenos are a very clever and an 
intelligent people, and though they are addicted to strong 
drink the gospel has a wonderful effect upon their lives. 
" Men are turning from folly, sin and vice to worship at the 
feet of Him who died to save them." 

The Patagonians have been described as a gigantic race of 
men. As a matter of fact, though they are taller than the sur- 
rounding races, their average height is not over five feet ten 
inches, though several travelers have mentioned individuals 
who measured upward of six Teet. They have good features, 
and their long, straight, black hair is uncontaminated by oil or 




^ 



m SPANISH AMERICA. 447 

paint. Paint is worn on the face and body, however, as a pro- 
tection against wind and sun. 

Unlike tlieir neighbors, the Fuegans, they do not go un- 
dressed. "The beautiful skin of the guanaco," says Mr. Buel, 
" covers from neck to ankle the towering form of the Pata- 
gonian, who completes his costume by soleless boots of the 
same material. The philosophy of his wearing boots when they 
cannot serve to protect his feet lies in the fact that they have 
their office as he forces' his way through the thorns in which 
his country so much abounds." Mr. Buel says that to have 
one-half of his face and body covered black, and the other 
half white, seems to be a necessity of the Patagonian's life. 
" The white side, moreover, must sustain a black moon, while 
the black side must have a white sun ; one eye too must be 
surrounded by a white ring, while the other is encircled by 
red or black." In spite of these drawbacks the Patagonians 
are cleanly in their person. They bathe every morning, men 
and women apart, the men's hair being afterwards carefully 
brushed by their wives, daughters, or sweethearts, " great care 
being taken to burp any which may be combed out, in case 
evil-disposed persons might work spells on the original pro- 
prietor of the hair." 

Although the Patagonians are hunters by occupation, they 
never stray from home even so far as to cross the channel which 
separates their country from that of the Fuegan. They are 
fond of music, and several musical instruments are used among 
them. At one time the men were in the habit of singing the 
traditions of the tribe, but this custom has fallen into disuse. 
The charge of gluttony made against them by some travelers 
is denied by Captain Musters. The women are virtuous and 
industrious. Captain Musters insists that the Patagonians are 



448 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

not ferocious brigands, or savages of wild type, as they are 
usually described by unobservant travelers, but that they are 
kindly, good-tempered, impulsive, full of likes and dislikes, 
good friends and bad enemies. They are suspicious of strangei's, 
especially of the Spanish — as they have reason to be — and al- 
though they will steal when visiting white settlements, they are 
honest among themselves. While they often d^al recklessly 
with the truth, it is claimed that their falsehoods are seldom 
manufactured with malicious intent, but only "for fun." They 
are quite intelligent, and generally moral in their conduct 
when not under the influence of rum. From Magellan's time 
they have been regarded as brave, honorable, generous, mag- 
nanimous and amiable. 

The inhabitants of Terra del Fuego have been uniformly 
set down as anlong the lowest of the human race, and I have 
found no good word spoken of them. Mr. Darwin, the nat- 
uralist, who visited the island in 1833, wrote : " The Fuegans 
are in a more miserable state of barbarism than I ever ex- 
pected to see any human being." He describes the expression 
of their faces as inconceivably wild, and their tones and gesticu- 
lations far less intelligent than those of domestic animals. But 
in 1869, after the gospel had been preached to them, Mr. Dar- 
win wrote : " I certainly could not have imagined that all the 
missionaries in the world could have done what has been 
done." They were not altogether bad, or they would not have 
been made better. 



XXXIII. 

THE PORTUGUESE. 

I HAVE separated the Spanish and the Portuguese in this 
vokime because they are so widely separated in reality. Al- 
though ethnologically the same people, they have lived apart 
so long that did we not know their history we would regard 
them as entirely separate races. " Spain and Portugal," says. 
an old Portuguese writer, " though in such close contact, can 
never naturally coalesce ; they are like two men who are sitting; 
back to back to each other and never turn their heads." As a, 
matter of fact the Portuguese differ from the Spaniards as 
widely as the Swedes from the Danes. There is no congeni- 
ality between them, and with the exception of their ancestry 
they have little in common save an antipathy for each other> 
which along the border amounts to fervent hatred. 

While the Spaniards are prone to look down on their 
neighbors as degenerate relatives, their opinion is not shared 
by the rest of the world. " Even those who are inclined to 
assess the Spaniards at a figure sufficiently high — to take him 
at his own valuation is out of the question — prefer to have 
dealings with the Portuguese." The Portuguese are better 
workmen than the Spaniards, more faithful and more indus- 
trious, and it is claimed that even in manners they have the 
advantage ; though on this point there is room for difference 
of opinion. 

While the Portuguese are hearty haters of their neighbors 

(449) 



450 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

across the border, they are not lacking in cliarity. No other 
people are more humane, though their tenderness of heart often 
amounts to softness and renders them unfit to execute justice. 
Capital punishment is unknown among them, and in prison 
the criminal enjoys so much freedom that it is difficult to see 
wherein his punishment consists. The people love to show 
their sympathy for prisoners, and one never passes a prison 
that a hand is not stretched out of the window for alms, or, 
if the window is too high from the ground, a basket is let down 
by a cord ; and there is always bread or meat or coin ready to 
fill either the hand or the basket. 

The women of Portugal are more independent than those 
of Spain, and in some respects more interesting. They are 
cheerful, genial, sympathetic, full of repartee and ready wit, 
and withal hard workers. At home they know how to assert 
their rights, " and expect both lover and husband to hold 
a humble place in their respective stations." The peasant 
women are, as a rule, affectionate, self-denying, blind to the 
faults of others, and more moral in their lives than most of 
the humbler classes in other European countries. It is true 
that they are rather coarse in expression and sometimes un- 
truthful, but the former is due in part to their lack of education, 
while the latter is generally due to an inordinate desire to be 
agreeable and polite. 









By N. Sichel. 



A GIRL OF THEBES. 



XXXIV. 



IN THE SHADOW OF THE PYRAMIDS. 



The cliaracteristic virtue of the modern Egyi^tian is rev- 
erence for parents. It is said that an undutiful child is rarely 
heard of in Egypt. Among the middle and higher classes it 
is the custom for a child to greet his father in the morning by 
kissing his hand, and then to remain standing before him in 
an humble attitude waiting to know his wish or to receive 




CHILDREN ON THE ROAD TO TUNIS. 

his permission to depart. Nearly the same respect is shown 
toward the mother. A son is not expected to sit, or eat, or 
smoke in the presence of his lather unless bidden to do so. 
And this deference is shown toward his father as lono- as he 
lives. It is not uncommon for a grown man to be seen Avait- 
ing upon his father and the family guests at meals and on 
other occasions. 

(451) 



452 



THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



Although the mother is second in authority in the home, 
she receives honor as having authority from God. In early 
times, however, the authority of the wife was equal to that of 
the husband, and Dr. Trumbull says that there are communi- 
ties in Egypt to-day where the mother-in-law reigns supreme 
in the household; at least so long as she has strength to main- 
tain her hold. 

Morality among women is 
probably as high as it is in 
most Oriental countries. Much 
has been said of the voluptu- 
ous dances of the women; but 
it should be remembered that 
in Egypt a woman never dan- 
ces with a man, and in most 
cases she does not think of 
dancing except in the privacy 
of the harem with her com- 
panions, and never before her 
husband. With regard to the 
harem also it should be borne 
in mind that nearly all that has 
been written about it is little 
more than romance. No one, 
except the master of the house and the nearest relations, is 
allowed to enter the harem. "If a physician is called," says 
Mr. Frederick Ober, "the curtains are drawn across the sick- 
bed. If the pulse of a Moorish lady is to be felt a eunuch 
covers her arms and hands, leaving only the WTist free. If 
the tongue is to be shown, the eunuch covers her face with his 
hands, and the poor lady has to stretch out her tongue between 




TYPK OF MOORISH ^7VOMAN. 




EGYPTIAN GIRL. 



(4.^3) 



IN THE SHADOW OF THE PYRAMIDS. 



455 



his fingers. If she suffers from smallpox the eunuch counts 
the marks, and reports to the physician. As a rule a man is 
allowed to see unveiled only his own wives and female slaves, 
and those whom he is prohibited by law from marrying, on 
account of their being within certain degrees of consanguinity 
or family connections." 

Those who have visited 
the harems of Cairo have never 
gone beyond the reception 
room. There they have been 
permitted to converse through 
an interpreter with a group of 
veiled mysterious figures with 
w^hom they have exchanged 
views as to their costumes and 
jewelry, and then they have 
been shown to the door by the 
jealous and watchful eunuch 
who ushered them in. When 
rigid custom dictates that even 
the husband of the hostess 
shall never see her lady callers, 
and that, should the visit be 
prolonged till dark — as it fre- 
quently is — on no account shall he show himself, it could not 
be expected of a foreigner to really know anything of the inner 
life of an Oriental woman in the bosom of her family. 

It may or may not be significant that the women of the 
harem always express themselves as perfectly satisfied wdth 
their mode of life. It is claimed that they are by no means to 
be regarded as prisoners, usually having the liberty to go out 




A MOORISH BEAUTY. 



^m 



456 



THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



and visit their friends as often as they please. Mr. Eugene 
Daerr says that he has often seen the mother of the khedive 
of Egypt on the street. She wore an Oriental veil, which was 
so thin that it did not conceal the features; while the eye and 




A YOUTH OF HIPPO. 



the eyebrows were entirely exposed. She is both beautiful and 
accomplished ^nd speaks several languages fluently. 

The terra Moor is usually used to designate all Moham- 
medan inhabitants of Morocco, though, as Dr. Robert Brown 
has said, it should be limited to the inhabitants of the towns 
and to the nomadic tribes on the southwest of the desert. 




AN EGYPTIAN BEAUTY 



iiY THE SHADOW OB' TlIK PYIUUIIDB. 



459 



AVliile the Moors have no longer the power to win victories, 
they still possess much of the good taste for architecture which 




CARTHAGINIANS OF TO-DAY. 



characterized them when they dwelt in Spain, and also some- 
thing of the courage of those palmy days. 

The Berbers, wlio form the population of the great desert, 
are found along the Egyptian frontier, in Fezzan, Tunis, Alge- 
ria and Morocco. They are a robust, active, athletic people, 



460 



TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 



with strongly marked features, and a marvelous talent for 
patience. The most attractive people among the Berbers are 
the Kabyles, who are of a light olive complexion. The chil- 
dren of this tribe are noted for their beaut v. 





A BOY OF CONSTANTINE. 

"When the Arabs overran the country, many of the 
aboriginal inhabitants were driven out, and found refuge even 
so far as the banks of the Niger ; but the Kabyles, who had 
intermarried with the Romans, id who had been Christian- 
ized, remained and embraced Mohammedanism, though traces 




IN UPPER EGYPT. 



14(51) 



IN THE SHADOW OF THE PYRAMIDS. . 463 

of their ancient condition still cling to them in names and 
customs." 

The Kabyles live in rude houses and cultivate their fields, 
manufacture pottery, and are generally industrious, in striking 
contrast with the Nomads, who regard labor as a disgrace. 
They are exceedingly hospitable, though it is said that they 
make a distinction between those who pay for their lodging 
and those who do not. If a traveler offers money it is taken, 
and in such a case it is purely a business transaction, and they 
do not feel under any obligation except to provide what he 
pays for. On the other hand, if they receive a traveler with= 
out reward they regard his entertainment as a religious duty 
and receive him as a friend. It is said that in some parts of the 
country it is necessary to go without a penny and depend en- 
tirely upon free hospitality in order to be sure of safe guidance. 

The Kabyles are noted for their honesty in dealing with 
one another. Mr. Richardson, a noted traveler, says that he 
has found quantities of dates packed up in the sand without a 
guard, and their place indicated by a piece of wood. Among 
these rude children of Sahara it is a point of honor not to 
touch anything confided to the desert. 




(466) 



STARTING ACROSS THE DESERT. 



XXXV. 

THE MARKET FOR FAIR WOMEN. 

The people of Caiicassus are among the most beautiful in 
the world. Everywhere one sees men of tall and vigorous 
frames, and women of slender, elegant figures, regular features, 
and large, finely cut eyes, though it has been said one must 
look in vain for that nobler type of beauty which is found only 
among nations of advanced civilization, ''where the eyes are 
the unerring reflectors of the exalted sensations of mind and 
heart." For ages Caucassus has been the market from which 
Oriental princes have replenished their harems ; but even so 
acute an observer as Mr. Barkley, the noted traveler, insists 
that he could see nothing in the women to admire except their 
small hands and feet. He admits, however, that the men are 
magnificent, and declares that they are to the rest of the hu- 
man race what Arab horses are to the humbler steeds. While 
a pretty Circassian woman, according to western ideas, may be 
rare, a plain Circassian man is seldom seen. It is said that no 
people in the world have more beautifully shaped heads, more 
perfectly chiseled features, or more intelligent countenances. 
They are quick and graceful in their movements and always 
restless. Mr. Barkley grows enthusiastic over the shapely 
liands and feet of the Circassian women, and insists that he 
never saw one that an Eno;lish o'irl of sixteen mio-ht not envy 
for shape and size. He adds that this fact may be readily 

attested by examining the smallness of the handles of the nu- 
nc.:) 



468 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

merous knives which may be found in any collection of Oriental 
curios. 

The people of Oaucassus differ from the Turks in that 
they are always in a hurry and are never silent for a moment. 
The Turk is always silent and never in a hurry, but unless a 
Circassian is on his dying bed he is never quiet. He does not 
know how to loll, and rarely walks, but must be ever on the 
run, and he moves so rapidly " that he may be known a mile 
off by his quick steps." While the Circassians are not fond of 
work, they are prodigious talkers, and when in company speak 
as eagerly and as rapidly as if their lives depended on what 
they wanted to say. 

With regard to the proverbial beauty of the Circassian and 
Georgian women it should be said that only the finest speci- 
mens find their way into Europe, " as a system of selection is 
always going on in the wife markets of the Osmanli Turks, the 
occupants of whose harems are mostly of these two nationalities." 

The Georgians are the most polished people of Caucassus. 
They are very hospitable and pardonably fond, it is said, of 
their gala day with its morning of horsemanship and its even- 
ing of the dance and courting under the walnut trees. Their 
lips are always opening with song ; their hours are always 
happy, and they carry their cares very lightly, if, indeed, they 
may be said to carry them at all. 

Although marriage by force is in vogue, it is claimed that 
Georgian husbands are reasonably exemplary and usually treat 
their wives well. Polygamy is rarely practiced, though per- 
mitted among them. Eespect for the aged is perhaps their 
most remarkable virtue. Even the younger brothers of tlie 
family rise when the oldest enters the room where they are 
sitting. 



XXXVI. 

THE MAGYARS. 

On entering Hungary the traveler is at once struck with 
the remarkable beauty of its inhabitants. The high-class 
Magyar ladies are said to resemble the Circassians, while even 
the country women, exposed as they are to the hot sun of the 
plains, deserve their traditional reputation for good looks. 
Tissot grows enthusiastic over the freshness, delicacy, and purity 
of the complexion of the Magyar women, whether blondes or 
brunettes. Their wavy hair is superb, and in their large 
Oriental eyes, tipped with long lashes, " there mingles reverie 
with passion." While their features are not always regular the 
tyjDC is refined. " Ruby lips, pearly teeth, supple figures, and 
tiny arched feet complete a form which may even at a distance 
be recognized as that of a Magyar." The men are tall, manly 
and stately in form, but as a rule the women are finer looking 
than their lords, which a writer says is "the very reverse of 
that which prevails in Northern Europe, where for one fine 
looking woman there are ten men with faces and figures that 
deserve remark." 

The Magyar is always polite and courteous, though some 
writers have hinted that their behavior is not altogether free 
from a certain element of interested calculation. The peasants 
are very particular to give every one his proper title, or rather 
as is usual a title higher than that which one has earned. 

(469) 



470 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Ordinarily they address each other as "Thy Grace," varying 
the inflection according to the social grade of the person to 
whom they are speaking. The Magyars are exceedingly 
hospitable and their generosity is proverbial. It has been said 
that a German soldier has such a high oj^inion of the Hun- 
garian's goodness of heart, that he prefers being quartered in a 
village of Hungary to having his tent pitched among people of 
his own nationality. 

The Magyars are remarkable for their j)atriotism and 
courage, though, as one writer says, love of country is apt in 
some instances to degenerate into mere blatant invectiveness 
against every other nationality, empty boastfulness regarding 
the greatness of the Magyar, and an utter failing in capacity 
to see the infirmities and errors of their own country. 

But there is no question about their bravery. Nowhere 
will one find more stirring stoi'ies of heroism than in the annals 
of Hungary. Dr. Brown says that during their long struggle 
against the Turks it was the invariable agreement among the 
citizens when the latter besieged a town to refuse capitulation, 
and to forbid even the mention of the word on pain of death. 
The women followed their husbands to the trenches and in 
sorties, and at other times occujDied themselves in repairing the 
broken 'walls. When the signal was given for a final assault 
the women ran to mingle in the ranks of the besieged, and 
were only to be distinguished from the men by their blind and 
impetuous courage. "Some," says Boldenji, "fought hand-in- 
hand, others from the tops of the walls rolled down upon their 
assailants huge stones or poured quantities of boiling oil ujion 
them." 

During the insurrection of 1848 the women exhibited a 
courage which perhaps has not been equaled in modern times, 



TEE MAGYARS. 471 

many of them fighting in the uniform of a private soldier. A 
wealthy young girl is reported to have performed prodigies of 
valor, while another girl of high social standing was promoted 
for heroism, no one suspecting that she was a woman. 

The Magyar regards his wife as his inferior, and usually 
speaks of her as his "escort," while she refers to him as. her 
" lord." If you meet a Magyar peasant couple on the road 
you will pass the husband first and later on the wife, who 
follows at a resj^ectful distance. Yet the Magyar is regarded 
as generally kind to his wife. "Does your husband love 
you ? " asked one of a newly married woman. " I don't know," 
she said, " for he has not beaten me yet." 

While this is probably true to life among the higher 
classes, it is not true of the peasant, who is noted for his gentle- 
ness to his wife. The language of courtship continues long 
after the honeymoon is over, and she is always his "rose," his 
" star," or his " pearl." 

The Magyars are a people of many different creeds ; yet 
the best of feeling prevails, and every man worshi^^s God 
according to the dictates of his own conscience. In some 
places where the people are too j^oor to build more than one 
house of worship the Protestants hold their services in the 
Catholic church, after taking the precaution to hang a curtain 
before the altar. 

24 





(474) 



A CUBAN BEAUTY. 



XXXVII. 

THE PEARL OF THE ANTILLES. 

The story is told that when the flag of Castile and Aragon 
came down for the last time from the walls of Havana, the 
commander turned to the American officer who had come to 
take possession and said : 

" I cannot congratulate your country on its victory. You 
have come to rule over the basest, most despicable people on 
earth." 

At that very moment there were some thousands of 
Americans whose hearts were melting toward the Cubans as a 
noble race of martyrs. Somewhere between these two extremes 
doubtless lies the truth about these much misunderstood folk. 

The corner-stone of Cuban character, as Mr. Francis H. 
Nichols has said, is the Spaniard of Columbus' time plus the 
Negro slave, the conquered Carib and the tropical sun. If he 
has inherited many of the vices of his ancestors, and few of 
their stronger virtues, he is certainly not without many of their 
gentler traits. Perhaps most of the vices of the Cubans to-day 
can be traced to the mistrust which for centuries was so faith- 
fully cultivated by Spanish misrule. Cubans mistrust every- 
body, including the man who has had their best interest at 
heart and has done the most for them. Mr. Nichols says that 
no power on earth could ever make a Cuban patriot believe 
that Sagasta was actually led by disinterested motives when he 
propose<l home rule for Cuba. The same writer thinks that 

(475) 



476 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

mistrust is at the bottom of all the strange contradictions and 
inconsistencies of the Cuban character. It is one reason why 
it is so difficult to get rich Cubans to contribute to the support 
of the starving. They are afraid that the funds will be mis- 
applied, or stolen by the men who have the distributing of them. 
This universal want of confidence has naturally smothered the 
religious faith of the people and developed a nation of agnostics. 
A man is not likely to have faith in God if he has none in his 
fellowman. 

The two great sins with which Cubans have been always 
charged are lying and laziness. Certainly a superficial ac- 
quaintance with the people tends to confirm the accusation, but 
the writer whom I have just quoted insists that a more intimate 
intercourse with the Cuban in the country where he is at his 
best will disprove it. " It is undoubtedly a fact that the truth 
is not told in all the beauty of exactness in Havana as it is in 
Anglo-Saxon communities ; but the men who do the falsifying 
think that they are telling the absolute truth, and themselves 
believe every word of the wild statements they make. That is 
the strange part of it. Their mental vision is so distorted and 
their range so circumscribed that they see things as they would 
like to have them, not as they are. They jump at insane con- 
clusions. Their imaginations and prejudices fill in gaps be- 
tween trifles that make mountains and volcanoes out of mole- 
hills and deserts. As every man knows who has ever tried to 
gather facts from among them, there is hardly a Cuban living 
who can distinguish the line where rumor ends and fact begins. 
The result is, so far as the story is concerned, perhaps about 
the same as willful lying would be, but the motive behind it is 
very different." 

At any rate, it cannot be charged that the Cuban lies from 



THE PEARL OF THE ANTILLES. ^11 

a selfish motive, for everyone admits that he is generous to a 
fault. It is tlie most natural thing in the world for him to 
share his last piece of bread with any man who needs it, who- 
ever he may be. " He does it as a matter of course, because he 
has yet to find one of his countrymen who would not do as 
much for him." It is the uniform testimony of travelers that 
one never sees a Cuban in the country, of any class, who would 
not offer a strano-er somethins; to eat, and who w^ould not feel 
highly insulted if money was offered him in return. 

Domestic life among the Cubans is said to be excejotionally 
happy. A Havana lawyer recently declared that no divorce 
laws were needed in Cuba, " for the men get along too well 
with their wives to ever make any legislation of that kind a 
necessity." 

Spanish cruelty is one of the vices which the Cubans have 
not inherited. "It is the Gallejo teamsters from Spain," says 
Mr. Nichols, "who beat their little mules to death in the 
streets of Havana, not Cubans. A few years ago a Humane 
Society was started in Havana to stop the awful cruelty to 
dumb beasts. It failed because the Spaniards said that, inas- 
much as its members were all Cubans, it must be some kind of 
conspiracy against the government." 

The Cubans are also practically free from the sin of 
drunkenness. 

Cuban women are popularly regarded as timid, unde- 
veloped creatures, incapable of spirit or independence. Mary 
C Frances, than whom perhaps there is no writer more familiar 
with Cuban life and character, declares that the women of 
Cuba are as heroic as the men, and that there are some namea 
of women as widely known throughout the island to-day for 
their record of courage as is that of any military leader living or 



478 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

dead. Francisco Sanchez Betancourt was one of the heroes of 
the ten years' war. When this war began Mrs. Sanchez Betan- 
court came to New York with her family of small children. 
" There were but few Cuban families here at that time," says 
Miss Frances in True Stories of Heroic ' Lives, ^ " and there was 
no Junta to provide funds for the support of the families of men 
fighting in Cuba as there was in the late war, so Mrs. Sanchez 
was obliged to depend upon her own resources. She placed the 
children in a charity school, and worked with her needle to 
suj)port them, toiling far into the night in order that she might 
be able to j)ay for their modest maintenance rather than dej^end 
upon assistance, no matter how friendly. 

"The home of the Sanchez has for generations been in 
Puerto Principe. Mrs. Sanchez and her family were living 
there in j^eace when the late war broke out, her husband hav- 
ing died in 1894, honored throughout Cuba. Her sons, edu- 
cated in the United State's, were among the first to go into the 
field, for the men of that family were always fighting for Cuba 
when there was any fighting to be done. In 1895 an Ameri- 
can on his way to join General Gomez had commented on the 
patriotism of her family. Drawing herself up to her full 
height, she replied: 'I have five sons, whom God knows I 
love as much as a mother can. Four of them are now insur- 
rectos, fighting for the independen«ce of Cuba; the other is 
here with me, an invalid and a crijople, as you can see ; but if 
Cuba needs him she may have him also.' 

"Cuba did need him, and he became well and joined his 
brothers. All five fought through the entire war, and sur- 
vived. 

"In the spring of 1897 Mrs. Sanchez was arrested. 

* New York : Funk & Wagnalls Co. 



THE PEARL OF TUE ANTILLES. 479 

" Mrs. Saucliez had known that sshe was regarded with 
suspicion for the crime of being the mother of five insurrectos, 
and she was prepared. She immediately accompanied the 
officers without question. She was first confined for sevei-al 
weeks in the common jail of Puerto PrincijDe, and was then 
ordered to be deported to Havana. 

"This beautiful and aristocratic woman, accustomed to the 
refinements of wealth and the regard of adoring friends, was 
marched bareheaded and manacled and under a heavy guard 
through the streets of the city of Puerto Princijie to the rail- 
road station, where she was sent to Nuevitas, and thence by 
boat to Havana. Being a woman of wealth and social posi- 
tion, it was thought well to make an example of her, and she 
was treated with marked disrespect. 

"At Havana, as in Puerto Princij^e, there was no charge, 
no trial, no hearing, no legal proceedings of any kind. She 
was hurried to the Kecojidas, that infamous bastile for disso- 
lute women, and thrown in with one hundred and twenty of 
the lowest and most degraded of her sex, nearly all of them 
being negresses. Here she met Evangelina Cisneros, who had 
then been a prisoner for over a year. They instantly assumed 
the relation of mother and daughter, and each strove to lighten 
the trials of the other. . . . 

"I might relate many incidents illustrating the humilia- 
tions to which they were subjected. A few days after Mrs. 
Sanchez had been imprisoned she was talking in a low tone 
with Evangelina Cisneros, when a repulsive negress came up 
with a threatening air, and, holding out a strong, coarse cigar, 
shoved it almost in Miss Cisnero's mouth, saying: 'Smoke this, 
and stop putting on airs. You're no better than the rest of us. 
Smoke it, quick !' 



480 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

"There was no alternative. Miss Cisneros smoked it. 
Had she not done so, other and worse indignities were in the 
power of the depraved creatures with whom they were thrown 
in contact. A thousand and one cruelties for women of a 
refined nature were thrust upon them, nor was it prudent to do 
otherwise than conciliate them, for an appeal to the pi-ison 
guards brought only a laugh and a contemptuous shrug of the 
shoulders." 

Miss Frances says that amid surroundings and under con- 
ditions like these Mrs. Sanchez remained in the Recojidas 
until the pressure brought to bear by Consul-General Lee 
secured her release, with the proviso that she leave the island 
at once. 

"Arrived in New York, she immediately set about to aid 
the cause of independence for Cuba. Taking a valuable 
diamond necklace, an heirloom that had been in the Agra- 
monte family for many years, she went to Mr, Benjamin 
Guerra, treasurer of the Cuban delegation, and said: 

"'Mr. Guerra, at one time I intended this for my daughter's 
wedding gift when she should marry ; but for a lortg while I 
have thought that some time it would have to be used as a 
ransom either for myself or some member of my family. Now 
I am safe in the United States, I wish you to take this neck- 
lace and turn it into money to use for the cause.' 

"Mr. Guerra took the jewels she laid in his hand, then 
handing them back to her, he said : ' No, Mrs. Sanchez. You 
have given five sons to the cause of Cuba's independence, and 
that is quite enough. It may happen that none of them may 
be left to you by the time this war is over; and if so, these 
jewels would always stand between you and want. I will not 
accept them.'" .^ 



THE PEARL OF THE ANTH^LES. 481 

With such examples before them it is no wonder that the 
children grow up to be heroes beyond their years. One might 
fill a volume with the incidents of heroism in Cuban child-life 
which have come to light within the past decade. 

"It was in June, 1895," says the writer whom I have just 
quoted, "when one day a boy rode into the camp of President 
Cisneros, and without delay asked to be conducted to the chief 
executive. The marquis, always accessible to anyone, had the. 
lad sent to him immediately. As he entered and saluted it 
could be seen that he was a bright-eyed, manly little fellow, 
and in response to the request of the marquis to know what he 
could do for him he said: 

"'Senor Marquis, the Spaniards have killed my father 
and all my family. There is no one left but me to fight. If 
you will give me a gun I will help to free Cuba.' 

"The marquis looked at him carefully. 

"'How old are you?' 

"'Twelve, Senor Marquis. 

"'Twelve years old, and talk of fighting the Spaniards I 
You do not know what you are saying. You are only a boy. 
Go home.' 

" * I have no home, Senor Marquis. You might as well 
let me fight.' 

"And he did. The spirit of the boy captured the heart 
of the marquis, and he ordered a light rifle from the United 
States especially for him, and permitted him to accompany the 
escort, with orders to his men to carefully protect him. The 
boy was a fine young fellow, and the marquis not long after 
sent him to New York to be educated." 

Miss Frances also tells a thrilling story of a girl of twelve 
who rode twelve miles throu.fjh rain and storm to take to Col. 



482 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Braulio Pena the word from General Gomez that he was 
needed at once to assist in the battle of Saratoo-a. " It was in 
1896, and Castellanos, with some twenty-five hundred men, was 
on his way to Cascorro. General Gomez with a small escort 
was en route to meet General Garcia in Eastern Cuba, and 
he wished to get enough men together to stop Castellanos. A 
young lieutenant was ordered to ride at once to Col. Pena, 
about seventy miles away, and tell him to come without de- 
lay, bringing the four hundred men under his command, and 
join Gomez, the old general believing that with one thousand 
men he could stop the Spaniards. The lad^for he was only 
a boy in his teens — rode all day as hard and as fast as his horse 
would carry him, and just at dusk it was his misfortune to run 
into a company of Spaniards putting their horses out to grass. 
They fired on him and wounded him severely, but he managed 
to escape and rode nine miles to his house. 

"Arrived there, although faint from fatigue and covered 
with blood, he insisted that he would stop for but a few mo- 
ments for some refreshment, and while his mother and elder 
sister bound up his wounds and stanched the flow of blood, he 
ordered another horse to be saddled, saying : 

" ' I must go at once. General Gamez needs Col. Pena. 
Get my horse, quick ! ' 

" ' You must not go,' said the distracted mother. 

" * I will,' replied the boy. * There is no one else to go. 
Hurry ; there is no time to be lost.' 

"A half-witted Negro boy, a servant, ran out for the 
horse, and returned in a moment, saying : ' The horse is gone.' 

" ' My God, what shall I do ? ' cried the boy. 

"At that very instant the sound of a horse's hoofs care- 
fully stepping over the low fence-rails was heard, and as he 



TEE PEARL OF THE ANTILLES. 483 

cleared the last one he saddenly flashed by them like a shot 
and away into the gloom of the Cuban twilight. As horse 
and rider vanished in the gathering darkness they recognized 
Conchita, the younger sister. The child had hovered around 
her brother from the moment he had entered the house, and had 
gathered the import of the message, and then, without saying a 
word to any one, she had quietly slipped out and saddled the 
horse and started for Col. Pena's camp, twelve miles distant. A 
storm was rising, and the mother and sister called frantically to 
her to stop, but the girl gave no reply. She dashed out and 
was off before any one even dreamed of her intention. It was 
impossible to send any one to bring her back, and the mother 
said : ' It is for Cuba,' and turned her attention again to her 
wounded son. 

" On like the wind sped the child through the darkness. 
She knew the road, and the animal was fresh. She 2>ut the 
spurs to him and rode as riding for life or death. In a few 
moments the tropical storm that had been gathering broke, and 
in the terrific downpour she was drenched, beaten down in her 
saddle by the rain and gusts of wind, blinded by the sheets of 
water that dashed into her face. Her hair huni>; in soaked 
masses about her shoulders, rivulets of water trickled from every 
point ; but not for one instant did she falter or think of turning 
back. Fortunately the horse she rode was a fine animal, and he 
covered the distance in record-breaking time. Slie reached 
the camp ; and just as Pena was about to turn in for the night 
a slender little figure, soaked, drenched, panting, slij^ped from 
her horse almost into his hammock, and said : ' Please, Colonel 
Pena, General Gomez wants you and your men at Saratoga.' 

"After the startled colonel had assured himself that this 
apparition was a real live girl and not a wraith boi-n of the 



484 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

stx)rm, he ordered out his men. Unfortunately, all but an escort 
of thirty men iiad been sent into the Holguin district ; but 
Pena took this small number and started immediately for the 
scene of action. The courage of this young heroine had won 
his heart, and, taking the half-drowned little figure in his arms, 
he gathered up his blanket out of his hammock, wrapped her 
closely in it, and setting her before him on his own saddle, 'car- 
ried her thus all the way back to her home. 

"The storm had ended and the stars were shining brightly 
in an unclouded sky when the colonel rode up about midnight 
to the humble palm hut, tenderly supporting the child in his 
strong arms. With simple and unconscious eloquence she had 
told her unvarnished tale, and then, warm and dry and safe, 
she had fallen asleep, and was deep in the land of dreams be- 
fore the clatter of hoofs on the midnight air aroused the 
family. The gallant colonel's eyes were wet as he lifted her 
down. 

" ' Senora,' he said, ' both your son and your daughter are 
worthy of Cuba.' Then, saluting, he rode away to battle, al- 
though he had but thirty men instead of four hundred ; and it 
was at the ensuing battle of Saratoga that he won from Gomez 
the title of ' The Fighting Colonel gf Camaguey.' 

" This tale I heard under the velvety stars of a tropic night 
in Cuba told by one who was himself in the battle." * 

* True" Stories of Heroic Lives. New York : Funk & Wamalls Co. 



XXXVIII. 

THE INDUSTRIOUS SWISS. 

There are really no such people as the Swiss in a strict 
ethnological sense, Switzerland being, like Austria, only a polit- 
ical expression. Indeed, until about five hundred years ago 
not a germ of modern Switzerland had appeared on the map 
of Europe, nor did the confederacy become an independent 
j^ower until the seventeenth century. Though the word 
"Swiss" has been for ages in common use, the idea that there 
has always been a country of Switzerland as there has always 
been a country of Italy or Germany is only a po|)ular delusion. 
As Mr. Freeman has pointed out, it is no less erroneous to 
imagine "that the Swiss of the original cantons are the lineal 
descendants of the Helvetii." The inhabitants of Switzerland 
are really the overflow population of all the nations around, 
though they have dwelt apart from the rest of the world long 
enough to develop some distinctive traits. 

The Swiss are noted, for their neatness. "Crossing from 
the French side into Canton Vaud," says a writer whose name 
has escaped me, "is like stepping from a disorderly kitchen 
into a dainty parlor. The first habitation on the Swiss side 
of the border is a neat cottage with shutters painted in the 
Vaudois colors — green and white — and as you may see through 
the open doors and transparent windows, is as clean inside as it 
is irreproachable outside." The writer says that he pointed 
out the difference to his companion, an intelligent native. 

(485) 



486 THE BBIOHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

"Yes," he said, "the French are nasty." It is not so much 
because they are poor, the Swiss thought, for all the people on 
both sides of the border are industrious farmers or pill-box 
makers or both, and fairly well-to-do; "but it is because the 
Vaudois are so much better instructed than the French." Per- 
haps this explanation is the true one. One never linds a Vau- 
dois who cannot sign his name, and one seldom finds a French 
peasant who can. 

The Swiss are all hard workers, and their houses are 
veritable bee-hives. Nearly all the manufacturing in Switzer- 
land is done at home. The Swiss laborer stands high, and 
holds himself quite as high as he stands. He insists on being 
treated with deference by the master whom he serves, and will 
not tolerate in him an air of affected superiority or of haughty 
scorn. The people generally are religious, honest, faithful to 
their word, moral in daily conduct, good-humored, and have 
withal a very delicate sense of humor. In many parts of the 
country there is practically no poverty. When one grows too 
old to work he is maintained at public expense, and he is not 
looked down upon on that account. On the contrary, he is 
regarded as a member of a benefit society with accumulated 
funds, and not as a pauper for the support of whom his more 
fortunate neighbors have to pay an unwilling tax. When the 
poor fund is insufficient the deficiency is made good out of 
the ordinary revenue of the commune. At all events, the un- 
fortunate are adequately provided for, and the orphans are 
educated and taught a trade. 

The watchmakers, who have made Switzerland famous, are 
perhaps the best workers in the world. They are remarkably 
skillful, and perhaps no other people are so well equipped by 
nature for the most delicate work. , The j)easant farmers are 



THE INDUSTRIOUS SWISS. 487 

generally better off than their French neighbors. As I have 
already intimated, they have something of an education, and 
there is a degree of refinement among them. 



XXXIX. 

THE SOUTHERN SLAVS. 

The Slavs, who form eighty millions of the population 
of Europe, constitute that great body of the Aryan stock which 
found its way at an early period from Asia to Eastern Europe 
and intermarried with the aborigines of the country, and at a 
subsequent date was blended with the various Tartans and 
other Asiatic tribes who followed in their wake. The present 
position of the Southern Slavs is due to the emperor Heraclius, 
in his easrerness for their alliance and assistance Q-ivinsr them 
Dalmatia in which to settle. The modern Slavs are described 
as of a rather swarthy complexion, with small, deep-set eyes, 
and a nose inclined to "snub," dark hair and heavy beard. 
They are not of a high grade intellectually, but as a rule they 
are industrious, and they are endowed with a capacity for obey- 
ing, which, as has been said, has made them among the best 
soldiers of Austria and Russia. 

The Serbs of Servia are amono; the most interestinsc of 
tlie Slavonic people who have been recovered from Turkish 
domination. Many of the customs of these people are identi- 
cal with those of the Russians. An inferior kisses the hand 
of his superior, though of late the custom of hand-shaking has 
been introduced, and it is said that if you visit a Serb cottager 
tlie host will shake hands with you while the eldest daughter 
will wash your feet. A Serb treats his servant as he would his 

25 (491) 



492 TEE BBIGET SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

own children, and when he starts on a journey he blesses them, 
while they kiss his hand and wish him a happy return. 

The ambition for an education is widespread among the 
youth of the race. Poor students are glad to perform any kind 
of menial service while attending the higher schools. 

The peasants of Servia are emphatically pious, and their 
domestic life is pure. Indeed, morality among them is much 
higher than in the neighboring countries. No sacrifice is too 
great for them in the performance of their religious duties, 
and all the stated fasts of their church are faithfully observed. 
Every family has its patron saint. "These saints, as treated 
in Servia, are in reality a direct survival from pagan times. 
The early Christian missionaries, finding it impossible to win 
their converts from their ancient gods, persuaded them, to ex- 
change them for saints, who were duly installed after the fash- 
ion of the idols which they displaced." 

The Servians are a very conservative people, and there- 
fore, although given to hospitality, they require a stranger to 
be well introduced before receiving him with open arms. 

The Slavs of Bulgaria are known in history mainly for 
their fighting propensities. In modern times, however, they 
have lost much of their warlike spirit, having grown weak 
under misfortune and the iron rule of the Turk, though they 
have not yet entirely lost their ancient valor and ambition. 
They have always shown themselves capable of great things as 
a race, and under the free institutions which they at present 
enjoy they are advancing at an encouraging rate. Education 
is becoming more general, and the people are being gradually 
emancipated from the slavish ideas which for ages have gov- 
erned the nation. 

In character the Bulgarian '' steers a middle course be- 



THE SOUTHERN SLAVS. 493 

tween the fiery excitement of the Greek and the uproariousness 
of the Armenian." He is quiet, but always determined, and 
generally sticks to a point until he gains his purpose. The 
everyday life of the Bulgarian does not differ widely from that 
of the Greek, except in the greater ascendency which Bulgarian 
women have over Greek women. The Bulgarian wife works 
as hard as her husband, and contributes quite as much to the 
family funds, and keeps herself as well as her home attractive. 
Her husband, though intemperate on feast days, is for the re- 
mainder of the year, as a rule, sober and well behaved. The 
charge of intemperance that has been brought against Bulgarian 
women is said to be wholly without foundation. 

While the Bulgarians are by no means an intellectual race, 
they nevertheless insist on doing their own thinking as far as 
they are able. They j)i'actice the happy art of settling their 
own differences quietly among themselves without calling ia 
the aid of the authorities. In brief, they are a peace-loving^ 
hard-working people, " possessing many domestic virtues which,, 
if properly developed under a good government, might make 
the strength of an honest and promising state." 

The Montenegrins are the most picturesque and probably" 
the best specimens of peasantry that can be seen anywhere in 
Europe. After a long and fierce struggle with the Turks, they 
have now attained independence and are beginning life anew 
with little culture and no wealth. Altogether they number 
about 250,000, most of whom are scattered widely over their 
little territory, and are engaged for the most part in pas- 
toral and agricultural pursuits. Years of ceaseless fighting 
have made the Montenegrin a brave " though a somewhat 
turbulent individual," and though, as some one has said, the 
skulls of the Turks which once upon a time were the picturesque 



494 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

ilecorations of the capital, have been removed, the Montenegrin 
is quite capable, if occasion should offer, to replace these 
national monuments. Eyery Montenegrin is a soldier ready 
at an hour's notice to take the field and always ready for war 
as a pastime. He enters a fight with zest and pursues it to the 
bitter end. The story is told that during their latest difiiculty 
with the Turks an old man of eighty years drew a pistol and 
killed himself because the prince refused to allow him to march 
with the troops. 

Everything is primitive among these jiicturesque peoj^le. 
The position of woman is not high, though it cannot be said 
that she is maltreated. Like the women of Bulgaria, they 
are always equal to great occasions, and rise to marvelous 
courage when danger threatens. They are capable of a patriotic 
zeal that amounts to ferocity, and often excel their husbands in 
the spirit which they display in time of war. Fond as he is 
o*f a fight, the Montenegrin is not, as has been claimed, a savage 
in his customs. On the contrary, he is remarkable for his 
humanity, and is particularly merciful to the lower animals. 
It is true that he was until lately in the habit of mutilating his 
prisoners, but this was only the remains of an ancient custom, 
which, horrible as it seems to Europeans, was quite natural in 
the country from which he came. 

Mr. E. A. Steiner, in an account of a recent visit made to 
the court of the Prince of Montenegro, says that with all the 
admirable qualities of the Montenegrin he is a very tyrannical 
husband. Yet, strange to say, he is not without the spirit of 
chivalry. The prince told Mr. Steiner that a Montenegrin 
woman can always^ask any man she meets to be her protector, 
and that in no case does she have any reason to regret her 
choice. They have some very ungallant proverbs, such as: 



THE SOUTHERN SLAVS. 495 

" He who does not beat his wife is no man," and " Twice in his 
life is a man happy : once wlien he marries and once when he 
buries his wife," but, like some of our own, they belong more to 
the realm of humor than to reality. 

" As far as our homes are concerned," said the prince* 
" they have one thing in which they are superior to those of 
the Anglo-Saxon people : hospitality is a law with us. We 
protect our enemies as soon as they enter our doors, and not 
even my power could compel one of my subjects to surrender 
his guest to me. Our proverb says : ' As long as he is in 
my home he is like myself.' You know we were once home- 
less in these mountains, and no stranger, whomsoever he be, 
would be turned from the door of my jDOorest subject. It has 
happened not seldom that wounded Turks were harbored in 
some of the homes of my people, and were assisted to escape as 
soon as they were able to walk." 

Mr. Steiner describes the prince as a tall, well-built man, 
with a face indicating robust health aad telling a story of hard- 
ships in the battlefield. " His eyes are penetrating and their 
light magnetic. He draws one to homage^ — I should say even 
to love. His subjects adore him, kiss the hem of his garment, 
and I can say it is no empty form with them. He knows the 
affairs of every tribe. He is chief justice, the head of the 
church and the head of the army. On occasions like these he 
passes among the crowds, greeting the veterans, listening to 
their complaints, and cheering his subjects, who at this time 
were particularly downcast, for there had been no war for years, 
and the drouth had played havoc with their crops." 

The same writer says that he was permitted to enter the 
large garden where the different tribes were gathered to be 
reviewed by their ruler, where he witnessed a very touching 



496 THE BRIGHT BIDE OF HUMANITY. 

iscene. The people stood about the prince in a semicircle " like 
giant trees of the forest untainted by vice or disease, untouched 
by culture." Although 30,000 of them passed in review before 
liim, including many an old comrade of the battlefield, for each 
of them he had a friendly look. He walked among them both 
as a king and brother, and they kissed the border of his gar- 
ment as he passed. " No doubt each of them," said Mr. Steiner, 
" would have been ready to give his life for his prince." 
While one of the tribes was in review, and he was passing from 
■one man to another, receiving the usual salutations, he came to 
an old warrior, who stood meekly in his place waiting for an 
opportunity to greet him in the usual way. But the prince 
raised him up and kissed him on the cheek, saying, " Bratje, it 
is for me to salute thee, for thou hast saved my life," and the 
old man thus honored wept for joy. 




AT THE CxATE OF THE CORFU (IONIAN ISLANDS). 



(498) 



XL. 

THE GREEK AT HIS BEST. 

The Greeks have long been peculiarly unfortunate in the 
class of people who have done the advertising for the nation. 
It is well known that the riff-raff of the Levant are Greeks 
and the average Hellene who wanders away from his native 
land is apt to be more intent on making enough money to go 
back than on carrying back with him a character which would 
be a credit to himself and his country. There is a cleverness 
too about the Greeks which often gains for them a not very 
flattering reputation, as cleverness often does when allowed to 
run loose. The Greeks the world over bear the reputation of 
being much too sharp at a bargain, and are credited with a cun- 
ning which falls little short of duplicity. In France an unscru- 
pulous rogue is usually known as " un Grec." 

There is something to be said, however, for the Greeks 
abroad. That they are often too cunning cannot be denied ; 
but for ages they have been compelled to fight a hard battle 
with fortune ; and an age-long battle of this sort almost in- 
variably results in duplicity. For centuries they have been 
so far in the minority to the people with whom they have had 
to treat that it has required all of their superior acuteness to 
hold their own and escape the oppression of the conqueror. It 
was only natural that their acuteness should degenerate to 
chicanery. Moreover, they were always trying their wit, not 
against Europeans, but against Orientals, who regard cunning 

(499) 



500 THE BUIOHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

as a mark of superior ability, and who never hesitate to cheat 
the man who may be governed by the higher motives which 
rule among people of the West. "A slave, the Greek had for 
centuries only the consolation of making money, or of gaining 
a place by which he could make more. Hence he became what 
he is so unfortunately well known often to be, and the finesse 
of which he is so proud has become a sort of hereditary trick- 
ery, which compels people not quite so keen to exercise ex- 
treme caution before trying mercantile conclusions with this 
singularly wideawake people." 

It should also be remembered that this trait is not peculiar 
to the Greeks, and that a certain amount of astuteness and tact 
are regarded as necessary to one's very existence anywhere in 
the Turkish empire. 

The best and purest specimens of the race are to be found 
in the Greek islands, where the higher class are certainly not 
more cunning than any other order of Mediterranean trading 
people. In their native land the Greeks are active and ener- 
getic, and in many respects resemble their ancestors. "A 
Greek of our day is as fond of disputation as the Greek of the 
period of Plato, and the subjects of King George, in their eager 
search after some new thing, might fittingly stand for the por- 
traits of those whom Paul of Tarsus reproved for their fickle- 
ness." Notwithstanding their remarkable mental activity, how- 
ever, they are not apt to run into extremes. " The tact which 
in so many of the Greeks degenerates into low cunning in its 
better form lends courteousness to their manners, so that life 
to the good-natured stranger is more agreeable in Greece than 
in almost any other country of the Mediterranean shores." 
They are of a cheerful disposition, and rarely fall into melan- 
choly. Hence suicide is almost unknown among them. In 



THE GREEK AT IIIS BEST. 501 

their daily life they are moral above many of their neighbors, 
being particularly moderate in eating and drinking. 

One may spend months and even years in Athens without 
seeino; an intoxicated man. Indeed, Athenians say that a 
drunken man is never seen among them. We are reminded of 
the customs of the ancient Greeks, who taught their sons to 
avoid excess in the use of wine by pointing out to them their 
drunken slaves that they might see what brutes wine made of men. 

The Greek is remarkable for his desire to learn. Educa- 
tion with him is a passion. There is no sacrifice which a Greek 
boy will not gladly make in order to acquire knowledge. This 
has gone so far that the land is filled with professional men, 
while there are too few farmers to till the soil. During the 
revolution of I860 students, liable to serve as soldiers, could al- 
ways be found attending lectui"es at the universities, many of 
them gun in hand, ready the moment their studies ended to 
resume their places in the ranks. Often chambermaids and 
other servants of the household spend their leisure hours in 
self-instruction. " It chances if a physician engages a Greek 
lad to brush his boots he will seize every opportunity to peruse 
his master's medical books, or to con his Latin grammar, in 
order when the time comes to be able to advance a step in that 
upward direction toward which his eyes are ever wandering." 
This ambition to rise is always accompanied by a degree of 
self-confidence, which makes the young Greek fluent and clear- 
headed, and always able to tell his story; though, as one writer 
intimates, it may be trusted that the version will be adapted to 
the cause in which he has a part. 

That he is patriotic is shown by the zeal which he has dis- 
played in fighting for his independence, and the readiness with 
which he has often taken up arms in defense of what he believed 
to be the best interest of his country. 



502 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

The Albanians, who are closely related to the modern 
Greeks, are supposed by many to be of a purer race than the 
Greeks proper. They have lofty, broad brows, and small, 
delicately moulded features, with a classic cast of countenance. 
The women are regarded as the most beautiful in Southeastern 
Europe, and the children are almost invariably charming, 
with large, solemn eyes and "splendid mouths, slightly turned 
down at the sides, which gives them a singularly sweet and 
thoughtful expression." The manners of the Albanians are 
remarkably polite, and they have a tact and a delicacy of per- 
ception not to be found among other half-savage mountaineers. 
It is said that although they are cruel enemies and have little 
regard for human life, they are staunch friends, truthful, vir- 
tuous, hospitable and companionable. Very few Albanian 
women have any education, but they are strict observers of 
etiquette and are very proud of their ancestry. 

Mrs. Blunt, who lived some years among the Albanians, 
says that they have the rough vices, and often the unthinking 
virtues of semi-savage races. If cruel, at least civilization has 
not yet taught them its general lesson, " that honor and chivalry 
are impractical relics of Middle Age superstition quite uu- 
worthy of the businesslike man of to-day whose eyes are fixed 
on the main chance." 

The Albanian, too, can plunder, but he does it "gun in 
hand, and openly on the highway ; not behind a desk or on 
'Change. His faults are the faults of an untrained violent 
nature : they are never mean. His virtues are those of forgot- 
ten days, and are not intended to pay. He is more often abused 
than praised, but it is mostly for want of knowledge; for his vices 
are on the surface, while his sterling good qualities are seen only 
by those who know him well and know how to treat him." 



XLI. 

THE HOME-LOVING GERMAN. 

Tacitus describes the Germans of his day as a fair- 
haired people who slept under the stars, and were so numerous 
that they could bear up the sky on their spear points. The 
description, so far as it relates to numbers, holds good of the 
Germans to-day ; but they no longer sleep under the stars, nor 
are they, since the inflow of Celtic and Slavonic blood, alto- 
gether a fair-haired people. 

The popular idea of the German is that he is a phlegmatic, 
lumpish, unexcitable sort of individual, with prodigious stay- 
ing powers, and little momentum. As a matter of fact, if the 
German is somewhat lumpish he is not altogether unexcitable, 
and while he has great staying powers he has also shown him- 
self to possess a ponderous energy. 

It is often said that the German is vain and loves to have 
incense burned before him. This little infirmity, which, by 
the way, has been greatly exaggerated, serves to hide many 
noble qualities from the eyes of the world, which is never dis- 
posed to look very deep when vanity lies on the surface. Un- 
questionably the proneness of the German student to hold in 
contempt every man whose acquirements in any particular sub- 
ject do not equal his own has been seriously in the way of a 
just estimate of German character. Then, too, one cannot learn 
the German at a distance. As Dr. Field has said, one may 
travel from the Baltic to the Adriatic, and see all the jmlaces 

(503) 



504 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

and museums and picture galleries, and yet be wholly ignorant 
of the people. " But if he has the good fortune to know a 
single German family of the better class into which he may be 
received, not as a stranger, but as a guest and a friend — where 
he can see the interior of tlie German home, and mark the 
strong affection of parents and children, of brothers and sisters 
— he will get a better idea of the real character of the people 
than by months of living in hotels." 

With this last sentence fresh in the mind, one is prepared 
for the statement that the characteristic virtue of the German 
people is family affection. Not army discipline but domestic 
love is the bulwark of the German nation. The German in 
the bosom of his family has long been a recognized symbol of 
earthly happiness. Certainly no other people are more beauti- 
ful in their home life. The German women are said to be the 
best of housewives, though it is claimed that they are re- 
garded too much in this light. They are, as a rule, well edu- 
cated, but they do not have the privileges which are claimed 
by the " new woman " of America, nor are they disturbed on 
the subject of the " rights " which are withheld from them. 
It has been charged that the wife of the middle class is a 
household drudge ; but, as has been said, it would be difficult 
to marry and live without drudgery on such incomes as are 
common. Among the middle class of the Germans the posi- 
tion of the housewife is easily mistaken by the foreigner. 
When a German woman pays attentions to the guest, such as 
are usually left in America to one's servant, it does not mean 
that she is a slave. It is, on the contrary, only a bit of high- 
bred courtesy. Few families in Germany are rich, and in the 
majority of homes such attentions must be given by the house- 
wife or not given at all. 




A FRISIAN MAT PLAITER. 



(507) 



■ki 



THE HOME-LOVING GERMAN. 509 

The rudeness of maimers for which the Germans have 
been so severely criticised, and which has been greatly exag- 
gerated, may be easily accounted for by the separation of the 
sexes in social life. Young men in Germany associate very 
little with young women, and they have few amusements or in- 
terests in common. It is this, and not moral looseness, which 
accounts for the unrefined expressions which it is claimed are 
too commonly used by both sexes in the fatherland. Indeed, 
it is said that the morals of the German people are now rather 
better than in most parts of Euro23e. Everywhere the mar- 
riage tie is sacred. If betrothal is not always followed by wed- 
lock it is because the German is accustomed to beins: controlled 
in almost every action of life, and is not always allowed to exer- 
cise his own free will, even in this respect. A military officer, 
for instance, before taking a wife must satisfy the authorities 
that in case he dies his widow wdll have sufficient means to live 
as becomes a lady of her position. 

The Germans are noted for warmth of heart. As some 
one has said, their marvelous digestive powers have their result 
in great kindliness and good nature. They are a good- 
humored peoj^le, and, all reports of their rudeness of manners 
to the contrary notwithstanding, they are essentially j)olite. 
"Across three thousand miles of sea, and I know not how many 
miles of land," writes Mr. Thomas Bailey Aldrich, " I toucli 
my hat at this moment to tlie landlord of the snu% little 
hostelry at Wittenburg, who Avaked me at midnight to excuse 
himself for not having waited on us in person when we 
arrived by the ten o'clock train. He had had a card-party — 
The Herr Prof. Something-splatz and a few friends — in tlie 
coffi^e r(X)m, and really, etc., etc. He couldn't sleep and didn't 
let me sleep until he had made his excuse, which was down- 



510 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

right charming iii you, my host of the Golden Adle*'. I 
thank you for it, and I'd thank you not to do it again." 

An attractive feature in the German character is a deep 
love of nature. "The German people need the forest," says 
Kiehl, "as a man needs wine." They love the country, and 
during the summer most of the day is spent out of doors. All 
families in comfortable circumstances have a garden a little out 
of town, and there ensconced in a bower erected under trees on 
an artificial mound, perhaps high enough to enable them to 
overlook the road, the ladies of the family will sit the livelong 
day working at their feminine occupations, or else harmlessly 
indulging in that gossip which flows so freely when a number 
of German women meet in a " coffee party." 

Next to their private resorts the public garden is the 
place where the German appears in least disguise and in his 
natural character. Here he reveals his love for music, which 
amounts to a passion. Luther spoke the mind of the whole Ger- 
man people when he declared that a man was a fool, a dull, heavy 
dolt,whose blood was not stirred by martial airs or softer melodies. 

The conservatism of the national character is remarkably 
strong. Whatever else the German may be, wherever he goes 
ho is always a German. He never leaves behind his national 
traits. Everywhere he shows his ponderous energy; every- 
where his home is a pattern for his neighbors; everywhere he 
is thorough in all things, and always frugal. 

The distressing stories which were published anent the 
loss of the Elbe at sea a few years ago filled the popular mind 
with the idea that the Germans are without the spirit of sacri- 
fice, and that they are too selfish to be heroic. Yet at the very 
time these stories were going the rounds of the press a thrilling 
incident of German heroism at sea passed unnoticed. 

















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GERMAN PEASANTS (AUSTRIA). 

(511) 



THE HOME-LOVING GERMAN. 513 

A fishing village was awakened one morning by a gun- 
shot off the coast. Hastening to the beacli, the people saw a 
ship wrecked on a reef a mile away. The crew were in the 
ri2:sina:. A lifeboat was run out, but Harro, the leader of the 
crew, was absent. 

** Eight men, however, rowed out to the wreck. The crew 
were got into the lifeboat, witli the exception of one who was 
lashed high upon a mast. He was half frozen, and as the 
storm was increasing and the lifeboat overloaded, it was 
decided that he could not be taken off. When the lifeboat 
returned to the shore Harro had arrived. He asked if every 
one had been saved, and was told that one remained. 

"'I will fetch him,' said Harro. 'Will you go with me?' 

"The men refused, saying that it was impossible. 

"'Then I will go alone,' cried Harro, and sprang into the 
lifeboat. At this moment his mother came running down, and 
begged him not to venture out, reminding him that both his 
father and brother, Uwe, had been drowned. Uwe was his 
youngest brother, and as he had not been heard from for years 
he was supposed to be dead. 

"'For love of me,' Harro's mother begged, 'don't go!' 

"'But the man on the mast!' exclaimed Harro. 'Are 
you sure he has no mother to mourn his death?' 

" Harro's mother said no more, and her son and four other 
men set out for the wreck, which was not quite under water. 
The waves were so furious that it was difficult to aj^proach. 
At last the lifeboat reached it, and Harro climbed the mast 
and fetched the half-frozen man down. He was laid in the 
bottom of the lifeboat, and Harro bent over him and remained 
so until the boat was so near shore that his voice could be 
heard. Then he waved his cap and shouted : 

'"Tell my mother we have saved Uwe!' " 



XLII. 

OUR ENGLISH COUSINS. 

Voltaire once said that if lie could have chosen his 
birthplace he would have chosen England. Max O'Rell, the 
brilliant French writer, after mercilessly, if somewhat face- 
tiously, berating John Bull and his island through a whole 
volume, grows sober at .. the end and magnanimously adopts 
Voltaire's sentiment. It is the usual way. When we want to be 
facetious or sarcastic the Englishman furnishes us with abundant 
material ; but when we cease our fun-making and draw toward 
a sober conclusion we never fail to be impressed by his solid 
worth. 

" Like Americans," says Dr. Talmage, " the English have 
been much lied about." And they have been much lied about 
for the reason that we are disj)osed to judge them, as the world 
is disposed to judge Americans, by the occasional adventurer 
who happens to be loud enough to force himself upon our 
attention. 

Kichard Harding Davis says that if the English judged 
us by the chance American, and we judged them by the aver- 
age English adventurer, we would go to war again for some 
reason or other at once. But this is what most of us are really 
doing. We judge the English by the Englishmen who make 
themselves offensively conspicuous. As Mr. Davis says, we 
forget that the gentleman, whether he comes from New York 
or London or Athens, is not conspicuous, but passes by unheard 

(514) 



OUR ENGLISH COUSINS. 515 

like the angels we entertain unawares, and that where a gentle- 
man is concerned there can be no international differences. 

As Americans we insist that our women should be judged 
by the intelligent and womanly women whom one meets, not 
by those who scratch their names over cathedrals when they 
go abroad, "nor by tlie young women who race through the 
halls of the Victoria Hotel." Certainly we should grant to 
our English cousins as much as we demand for ourselves. 

Many Americans think of the Englishman as a gouty, 
grouty, gruff, grumbling individual, who finds his motives for 
living in the delights of being an Englishman, of being im- 
polite, selfish, discourteous, and where there are toes to be tread 
upon unspeakably cruel. A more moderate view is that he is 
a staid, immobile creature, " slow in action, mental and physi- 
cal, sluggish, stolid, and with a dislike of movement which is 
composed in equal parts of vis inertice and local attachment." 
Concerning this latter opinion Grant White says that there was 
never a notion more incorrect, or set up more directly in the 
face of commonly known facts. 

Concerning the former Dr. Talmage says that he has 
never found what Americans call a " grouty Englishman," and 
he insists that the English people are warm-hearted and genial 
to the last degree. " Their homes, their carriages, their hearts 
are all wide open." He thinks that the Englishman is better 
natured than the American, and gives as a reason the fact 
that his digestion is better. " If a man has to wrestle with 
a lamb-chop three hours after swallowing it his good humor is 
exhausted. The contest in his body leaves him no strength 
for a battle with the world." Dr. Talmage is as much im- 
pressed with the way in which the Englishman' overcomes the 
horrible weather to which he is accustomed, and asks that " if 

26 



516 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

in this shadowy weather he can be so genial I would like to 
know how they are in the usual summer brightness." 

The same writer also insists that it is a delusion that 
Englishmen delight to grumble. " As near as I can judge, 
each community appoints some one to do the grumbling for it, 
and he becomes the champion grumbler." 

Grace Greenwood, writing out of her own experience in 
England, says that " hospitality more generous and cordial, 
kindness more constant and considerate, it were quite impossible 
to conceive. Tenderly do they deal with the stranger's heart, 
most sweetly do they strive to console it for the loss of home 
joys and deep, dear affections left behind." 

Thomas Bailey Aldrich says that every American who 
has passed a week in rural England must have carried away, 
even if he did not bring with him, " a fondness for our former 
possessions." 

Grant White admits that incivility is not uncommon in 
England, and says that Englishmen themselves will hardly 
deny that many of them are arrogant, insolent and overbearing. 
" And yet," he adds, " as I write this I am almost ashamed to 
do so, remembering what I can never forget, and should grieve 
and shame to forget, the kindness, the gentleness, the sweetness 
of nature, the almost tender thoughtfulness for others, that I 
have seen in so many Englishmen not only in England, but 
here before I have met them on their native soil." Elsewhere 
he says: "Those who have gone with me thus far will not be 
surprised at my saying that I found the manners of English 
folk in most respects pleasing and admirable. And by manners 
I mean not merely the attitude and the action and the sjDcech 
which appear upon the surface of social intercourse, but the 
motive feeling which underlies this surface, and which influ- 



OUR ENGLISH COUSINS. 517 

ences the actual conduct, as well as the bearing of man toward! 
man. Moreover, the distinction between manners and manner 
must be constantly kept in mind." * 

Referring to the remark often heard that English manners 
lack both warmth and grace, Mr. White says that as a people 
they have no manner. " I would not say, as Malvolio says 
of Viola in her page's dress, that their manner is a very ill 
manner. There is simply the absence of pleasing outward 
demonstration, a reserve so absolute and yet so unconscious, 
(unconscious, perhaps, through long- habit and continued 
practice) that it is very like indifference. But even to this 
judgment there must be made many exceptions — exceptions so 
numerous that sometimes it seems as if, like the exceptions 
to the conjugation of French verbs, they almost invalidate the 
rule. Certainly, I have never seen, nor could I desire to see, 
more show of heartiness and warmth than I have met in 
Englishmen." 

Robert Louis Stevenson, in his essay on "The Foreigner 
at Home," speaking of the trials of a Scotchman when he first 
visits England, says: "A Scotchman is vain, interested in him- 
self and others, eager for sympathy, setting forth his thoughts 
and experience in the best light. The egotism of the English- 
man is self-contained. He does not seek to proselytize. He 
takes no interest in Scotland or tlie Scotch, and, what is the 
unkindest cut of all, he does not care to justify his indiffer- 
ence." On this Richard Hardins; Davis comments: "If the 
Scotchman, who certainly seems reserved enough in our eyes, 
is chilled by the Englishman's manner, it is evident how much 
more the American must suffer before he learns that there is 

* England, Without and Within, by Kichard Grant White. Boston : 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



518 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

something better to come, and that the Englishman's manner 
is his own misfortune, and not his international fault. The 
Englishman says to this, when you know him well enough to 
complain, that we are too 'sensitive,' and that we are too quick 
to take offence. It never occurs to him that it may be that he 
is too brusque. If you say, on mounting a coach, 'I am 
afraid I am one too many, I fear I am crowding you all,' you 
can count upon their all answering with perfect cheerfulness, 
* Yes, you are; but we didn't know you were coming, and there 
is no lielj) for it.' It never occurs to him that it is not per- 
haps the best way of putting it. After a bit you find out that 
they do not mean to be rude, but you learn to be rude your- 
self, and then you get on famously." 

Much of the Englishman's apparent grufPness is the 
natural result of his honest hatred of social shamming. There 
is nothing the Englishman so heartily loves as sincerity, and 
nothing he so heartily despises as anything that in his eyes 
approaches hypocrisy. Even when he turns away abruptly 
from our courtesies, it is with disgust at what he imagines is 
j)ure shamming. As some one has said. Englishmen adulterate 
their goods, but not their conduct; and he will not brook any- 
thing in others that looks like adulteration .of manner. The 
shamming must be very good to make an impression at all or to 
, escaj^e severe rebuke. 

Mr. White tells of a lord, the wealthiest of country mag- 
nates, who was openly snubbed by his humble neighbors when 
he took upon himself the gracious airs of a lord of the soil, 
and was given to understand that, with all his money and his 
newly acquired acres, he was only a rich Londoner. " Even 
Mr. Disraeli could not use bis: words in talkina; to his rural 



OUR EN0LI8II COUSINS. 519 

neighbors without being girded at by all the scoffers of the 
opposition." 

Again, much of the selfishness which we are disposed to 
set down to the discredit of the Englishman is only the exhib- 
ition of the self-assertion which pervades the Englishman, 
and which Mr. White says is admirable and much to be 
desired. This egoism, which leads him to maintain his per- 
sonal rights of whatever kind, is absolutely beyond reach of 
all wealth, power or rank. "This absoluteness," says Mr. 
White, "is a genuine outcome of the English character. It 
exists nowhere else." The same writer defines England as a 
land where every man has rights which every man must 
respect. "He may incur the danger of disregarding them if 
he chooses to do so; but in that case the chances are ninety- 
nine in a hundred that, whatever his rank or his influence, he 
will suffer for it, even if he accomj)lish his purpose; and even 
that he will not do without a fi^ht. The rio;hts are not the 
same rights, and those who would rather have identity of rights 
with the constant risk of having them disregarded with impu- 
nity by "the 23ublic," or by rich corporations, or even by an 
assuming individual who takes on the form of a corporation — 
-perhaps physically as w^ell as financially — will probably prefer 
some other country." 

The world has long found delight in accusing England of 
selfishness in her policy, but Max O'Rell, strange as it may 
seem, finds no fault with her in this particular. "Is not 
patriotism the most manifest and excusable form of selfish- 
ness?" he asks. "Is it selfishness to think one's children 
handsomer and more intelligent than those of other people ? 
Is it selfishness to accept a good situation, rather than refuse it 
and offer it, like a good Christian, to one's neighbor ? Show" 



S20 TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

me a country that opens its doors more hospitably and gener- 
ously to the foreigner. Show me another country where he 
meets with so much attention and respect. All that is required 
of him is that he shall respect the law ; and, short of being 
able to sit in Parliament, he enjoys all the privileges of a born 
Englishman." 

Americans who have long been accustomed to the phrase 
*' wife-beating Englishman " will hardly be prepared to hear 
that the English are remarkable for their beautiful home life. 
Grant White, whom I have so often quoted in this chapter, 
says that while there is nothing more sad and gloomy than out- 
of-door life in a large English town, there is nothing more 
charming than the interior of a well kept English home. It 
is a paradise of study and comfort and well-understood 
luxury. Washington Irving was struck with this, and 
said that what most delighted him was the creative talent 
with which the English decorated the unostentatious abodes 
of middle life. ''The rudest habitation, the most unpromising 
and scanty portion of land in the hands of Englishmen of 
taste becomes a little paradise." Irving adds that "the charm, 
however, of English scenery, is the moral feeling that seems 
to pervade it. It is associated in the mind with ideas of order, 
of quiet, of sober, well-established principles, of hoary usage 
and reverend custom. Everything seems to be the growth of 
ages of regular and peaceful existence." 

The English above all other people — and I may hardly 
-except the Americans — understand the meaning of comfort. 
" With what ingenious forethought," says a writer, " are the 
smallest needs anticipated, what care and study are expended 
upon every convenience of life ! " The everyday intercourse 
of families in such an atmosphere of comfort is, as one might 



OUR ENGLISH COUSINS. 521 

expect, hearty and warm, though an American would not re- 
gard it as by any means effusive. They have some very beau- 
tiful customs. Ordinarily all the family, including the guests, 
shake hands on parting for the night and again on meeting in 
the morning. Mr. White was charmed to see two middle-aged 
men who lived in the same house meet in the breakfast-room, 
and shaking hands very warmly say : " Good-morning, brother." 
And all this among a people whose coldness we are never 
allowed to forget. 

A large part of the comfort in the English home is due to 
the devotion of English women to their families, and particu- 
larly to their children. Travelers grow enthusiastic over the 
thoughtful consideration of English women in the home, and 
Mr. White says that he believes they are the best, the most 
" self-sacrificing daughters, wives and mothers in the world, 
except the good daughters and wives and mothers in America ; 
and even them I believe they generally surpass in submissive- 
ness and thoughtful consideration." He thinks this is the 
result of the general subordination which pervades English 
society. "In the manner of Englishmen toward women there 
is neither the effusiveness of the Frenchman nor the sad and 
voiceless slavery of the American ; little bowing and flourishing, 
and not much flattery, but with a silent assertion of masculine 
mastery and no readiness to yield everything to a woman's 
caprice or convenience merely because she is a woman, there is 
an exhaustless fund of tenderness and a never-dying flame of 
chivalry among these wife-beating men. The Englishman's 
bearing toward women is the Yankee's, wholesomely corrected by 
a tempering of common sense and not unreasonable selfishness." 

Frances Power Cobbe tells in the Contemporary Revieio a 
characteristic story illustrative of this point: how she once asked 



522 TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

an elderly French gentleman to give some attention to a charm- 
ing young lady who was going on the same train with him from 
London to Paris, and how he was too happy to place himself 
at her service, and how he made himself very agreeable on the 
route, but how, when on their arrival at Boulogne there was 
serious difficulty about the lady's luggage, the Frenchman, 
rather than lose the train to Paris, expressed his regrets and 
was whirled off, leaving his young charge to get out of her 
trouble as best she could. " The result," says Miss Cobbe, 
" might have been annoying had not a hoSiely Englishman 
stranger stepped in and proffered his aid, and, having recovered 
the missing property, lifted his hat and escaped from the 
lady's expressions of gratitude. In this little anecdote," Miss 
Cobbe goes on to say, " lies a compendium of the experience of 
hundreds of ladies on their travels. The genuine and self-sacri- 
ficing kindness of English and American gentlemen toward 
women affords almost a ludicrous contrast to the florid polite- 
ness compatible with every degree of selfishness usually ex- 
hibited by men of other nations." 

The English woman is rarely a coquette, and is not re- 
markable for social tact. She is chiefly the sensible companion 
and helper of her father, brother, husband or lover, over whose 
interests she watches without weariness. She is not a society 
woman after the American notion. Indeed, in England society 
is in the hands of the men, who give it its tone, while women are 
CJ^lled in to furnish its grace and ornament. The "queen" of 
society is usually a man. The English woman looks up to 
him and finds her pleasure in pleasing him. As Mr. White 
has said, no matter how clever or brilliant she may be, she does 
not seek to make herself an idol, unless indeed she chooses to set 
propriety at naught and brave an accusation of bad form. "A 
Avoman's eye in Ensjlnnd never looks straiojht and steadv into 



OUR ENGLISH COUSINS. 523 

your eyes, saying I am quite able to take care of my own person 
and interests and reputation. Don't trouble yourself about me 
in those respects. Meantime, sir, I am taking your measure." 
There is always a mute ap^^eal from her womanhood to your 
manhood. This charm belongs to the English woman of all 
ranks, and beautifies everything that she does, even if she does 
it awkwardly, which is not always. She shows it if she is a 
great lady and welcomes you, or if she is a housemaid and 
serves you." 

The same writer is charmed with the manners of the 
English business woman, and says that they always have a 
j)leasant word or a smile in answer to a passing remark, and 
seem to be chosen for their pleasant ways as well as for their 
efficiency. " From not one of them, from one end of England 
to the other, in great cities or in quiet country towns and vil- 
lages, did I receive one surly word or look, or anything but 
the kindest and promptest attention. I can say the same of 
the shopwomen, who waited upon customers not as if they were 
consciously condescending in the performing of such duties, but 
cheerfully and pleasantly, and with a show of interest if the 
purchaser was satisfied." 

Max O'Kell says that the Englishman has greatness, but 
no magnanimity ; virtue, but no heroism when British interests 
are not at stake. " He is not so brilliant or so impulsive as his 
neighbor, more richly endowed by nature ; but he is more 
independent, more enterprising, more persevering and more 
wise." Bari'ing his exceptions, this estimate is probably veiy 
near the truth. The Englishman may not be as magnanimous 
as the Frenchman or the American, but he is magnanimous, 
and his heroism may not cover as wide a field as the Ameri- 
can's, but he is heroic. Moreover, no people are sounder in 
judgment or more intelligently patriotic. 



XLIII. 

THE DOUREST AND TENDEREST OF 

MEN. 

An Englishman once said to a Scotchman that no man of 
taste woukl ever think of remaining any length of time in 
such a country as Scotland. 

" Tastes differ," replied Sandy. " I'll take ye to a place 
ca'd Bannockburn, no far frae Stirling, where thretty thousand 
o' yer countrymen ha' been for five hundred years, and they've 
nae thought o' leavin' yet." 

There are still a few Englishmen who, along with some 
of his American cousins, entertain in all seriousness the no- 
tion that " every home-bred Scotsman is red-headed ; and that 
they all wear kilts, play on bagpi^^es, drink whiskey and use 
snuff, and feed exclusively on kail-brose and barley meal." 
On the other hand, there are still a few Scotsmen who declare 
that the English may be "no sae very bad considerin', but 
even at the best neither mair nor less than a parcel o' upsettin', 
ignorant pock-puddin's." Perhaps the prevailing sentiment 
among the Scotch, however, is not far from that of the in- 
spired shepherd of the " Noctes," who said " that the Eng- 
lishers are the noblest race o' leevin' men — except the Scotch." 

There are perhaps no peoj^le whose character has so much 
fascination about it as the Scotch. No other people have in- 
spired so many songs or furnished material for so many stories. 
Talmage said that there is something about the Scotch char- 

(525) 



526 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

acter, whether one meets it in New York, or Loudon, or Perth, 
that thrills one through and through. He attributes it partly 
to the fact that it is because he has such a strong tide of Scotch 
blood in his own arteries ; but many who have none of the 
Scotsman's " bluid " in their veins have experienced the same 
sensation. The Scotch are so strong and so sturdy that one 
is inspired by the very sight of them. " Their integrity, industry 
and thrift," says one writer, " their love of country and indom- 
itable bravery, and, not the least, their strong sense of religion 
and regard for the Sabbath — all combine to render Scotland a 
sort of gem in the garniture of the world. Then the Scotch- 
man himself is an honest, square-built man, with massive face 
and liigli, broad cheek-bones, ever priding himself upon his 
frankness, and speaking his thought, which is not always 
pleasant ; but then it is Scotch ! " 

" There is such a roar in their mirth," says Talmage. 
"Take a Glasgow audience, and a sjDcaker m^ust have his feet 
well planted on the platform or he will be overmaf^tered by the 
sympathy of the populace. They are not ashamed to cry, with 
their broad palms wiping away the tears, and they make no 
attempt at suppression of glee. They do not simper, or snicker, 
or chuckle. Throw a joke into a Scotchman's ear, and it rolls 
down to the centre of his diaphragm and then spreads out both 
ways, toward foot and brow, until the emotion becomes volcanic, 
and from the longest hair on the crown of the head to the tip 
end of the nail on the big toe there is a paroxysm of cachin- 
nation." 

Perhaps the most striking trait of the Scotchman is his 
honesty. There is no man on earth more absolutely sincere. 
There is not a trace of untruth in him. There is nothinsj 
half-hearted or half-minded in him. What he loves he loves, 



THE DOUREST AND TENDEBEST OF MEN. 527 

and what lie hates he hates ; and, whether he loves or hates, 
he does not hesitate to let you know it. If he is a Liberal he 
is a Liberal ; if he is a Tory he is a Tory, and there is never 
the slightest possibility of doubting it. In his religion he is just 
as decided as in his politics. " Get him right," says Tahnage, 
*'and he is magnificently right; get him wrong, and he is awfully 
wrong." There is no danger that he will be one thing to-day 
and another to-morrow. There is little chance of his being 
anything else half a century from now; for the Scotchman 
seldom changes. As Talmage puts it: " By the time he has 
fairly landed his feet in this world he has made lip his mind, 
and he keeps it made up. If he .dislikes a fiddle in church, 
you cannot smuggle it in under the name of a bass viol. We 
like persistence. Life is so short that a man cannot afford 
very often to change his mind. If the Israelites in the wilder- 
ness had had a few Scotch leaders, instead of wanderins: about 
for forty years, they would, in three weeks, have got to the 
promised land, or somewhere else just as decided." 

The Scotchman who believes in the Sabbath believes in a 
whole Sabbath. One of the distinguishing characteristics of 
the Scotch of half a century ago was the rigidity with which 
the observance of the Sabbath was inculcated. Dean Ramsay 
tells a story of an English artist who, while making a tour of 
" auld Caledonia," remained in a small town over Sunday, and, 
to pass the time, walked out in the environs. Seeing the pic- 
turesque ruins of an old castle, he asked a countryman who 
was passing to tell him the name of the castle. " It's no day 
to be speiring sic things," said the countryman, and it was the 
only answer he got. 

A lady who had become an Episcopalian took to church 
with her one Sunday a favorite servant, who was a Presby- 



528 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

terian of the old school. There was a full choral service, and 
she felt sure her companion would enjoy it. On her return 
home the lady asked her what she thought of the music. "Oh, 
it's a' varra bonny," was the response, " but, oh, my lady, it's 
an awful way o' spending the Sabbath ! " 

Dean E-amsay also tells of a lady who, on going into her 
kitchen on Monday morning, found a new roasting jack (which 
had been so constructed as to go constantly without winding 
up) broken. She asked the cook how it happened. Jenny 
replied that she did it herself, for said she, " I was nae gaing ta 
hae the fule thing clocking and rinning in my kitchen tli-e 
blessed Sabbath." 

The dean says "that reverence for the holy day often 
took a form one would hardly have anticipated." An old 
Highlandman said to an English toui'ist : "They're a God- 
fearin' set of folks here : 'deed they are, an' I'll give ye an 
instance o' it. Last Sabbath, just as the lairk was skailin, there 
was a drover chief frae Dumfries comin' along the road whust- 
lin' an' looking as happy as if it were ta muddle o' ta week. 
Weel, sir, our laads is a God-fearin' set o' laads, an' they yokit 
upon him an' a'most killed him." 

There is a story, not unlike this, told of David Hume, the 
fat philosopher. He had fallen into a mudhole and stuck fast. 
He called for assistance to a woman that was passing. She 
came up to him, looked at him a moment, and said : "Are na 
ye Hume, the atheist?" "Well, no matter if I am," said 
Hume, "Christian charity commands you to do good to every 
one." "Christian charity here, or Christian charity there, I'll 
do naething for ye till ye turn a Christian yerself. Ye maum 
repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, or, faith, I'll let you 
wallow there as I find ye." The skeptic, really afraid for his 



THE DOUREST AND TEND ERE ST OF MEN. 529 

life, rehearsed the required formulas, and was thereupon helped 
out of his unpleasant situation." 

The Highlanders of Scotland are noted for their piety. 
"The old folks had special prayers for every occasion. A 
prayer on going to sea, a prayer for resting the fire at night, 
for kindling it in the morning, for lying down at night, for 
rising up in the morning, for taking food, for going in search 
of sheep, cattle and horses, for setting out on travel, and all 
other occasions." 

As Dr. Robert Brown has said, however, the Highlanders 
are, strictly speaking, no more Scotch people than the Sioux or 
the Chippewas are people of America. "Yet in some respects 
they might claim to be called the Scottish nation, since they, 
of all the races inhabiting the northernmost part of Britain, 
are the only one which can be fairly described as natives. The 
other may be of a tolerably ancient date, but they are none of 
them so old as the Celts." The Highlander has many noble 
qualities, though, as the writer whom I have just quoted says, 
it is not to be denied by his friends that, like all the sons of 
men, he has a few very indifferent ones to counterbalance them. 

"Chastity of conduct and modesty of speech are every- 
where characteristic of the Highland race. Respect for the 
dead is evinced by the care with which the departed are buried, 
and the funeral trains which follow the hearse over the wildest 
roads and in the roughest of weather." Dr. Brown reminds 
us that as seamen and soldiers the Celts or Scots have dis- 
tinguished themselves in every part of the world, and anyone 
who has seen the herring fishers off the northern coast of Scot- 
land, many of them being Hebrideans, can appreciate the 
courage and skill of the rnce. " Fidelity to their chiefs is of 
course a classic virtue among the Gaels and other Celtic people. 



530 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Bight across the hills from Houbeag in South Uist lies Corra- 
dal, where there is a small cave in which Prince Charles 
Edward lived in hiding for six weeks. Hundreds of poor 
crofters and fishermen knew of his place of concealment. Yet, 
though ten thousand pounds — double the value then compared 
with wdiat it is now — was offered, not a man ever attempted to 
betray the ill-fated adventurer." 

Speaking of the Scot in America, Dr. Peter Koss says: 
" He is regarded as an embodiment of common sense, a natural 
lover of civil and religious liberty, a firm believer in free insti- 
tutions, in the rights of man, in fair play, and exemplary in 
his loyalty to wdiatever cause he may have adopted. They laugh 
at his reputed want of wit, at his little idiosyncrasies, at his dour- 
ness, at his dogged determination, at his want of artificiality, and 
several other peculiarities, but admire intensely the effective- 
ness of his work, and the habit he has of 'getting there' in 
whatever he sets out to do, the quiet way in which he so often 
climbs to the top, whether in banking or in professional or 
military circles, the public-spiritedness he shows in all walks 
of life and his truly democratic spirit.* 

"A believer in law," continues Dr. Ross, "he is ever on 
the side of authority; a believer in religion, he is a staunch 
upholder of public and private morals and of honesty in 
politics ; he does not aspire to political influence, to control a 
caucus, or lead a district, but he treasures his ballot as the out- 
come of his civil liberty, the charter of his freedom and 
equality in the Commonwealth. Whatever adds to the material 
of the country finds him an effective supporter ; in the cause 
of education he is ever in the ranks of the foremost Avorkers, 

* The Scot in America, by Peter Ross, LL.D. New York : The Raeburn 
Book Company. 



I 



THE DOUREST AND TENDEREST OF MEN. 531 

and ill charity his liberality and practical interest are every- 
where apparent. Take him all in all, he is a useful citizen, 
and in that regard is second to none. His jDatriotism is not 
that of the orator who believed in the old flag and an appro- 
priation ; but it is true, reverent and from the depths of his 
heart. So, too, in the great Dominion north of the St. Law- 
rence, no native has a deeper affection in his heart of hearts 
for ' This Canada of Ours ' than the Scot who has thrown in 
his lot in that part of the continent, and he is as proud of the 
maple leaf as he is of the thistle." 

The same writer says that, while giving himself up to the 
land of his adoption, the Scot in America does not forget the 
land of his birth. " It may be to him but a sentiment, yet the 
sentiment burns deeper into his heart as the years roll on.- 
It may be forever to him a reminiscence, a dream of the past, 
and the mournful notes of 'Lochaber No More' may sound in 
his ears as he conjures back to memory the once familiar scenes 
and recalls once weel-kenned faces. But as time creeps on its 
very name becomes sacred, and his highest hopes are all that is 
grand in Scotland, and all that has lifted her up among the 
nations, and that has made her to be regarded as an unfaltering 
champion of civil and religious liberty, may be transplanted, 
preserved and perpetuated in the land which has become his 
own. He never thinks of Scotland w^ithout a flutter, without a 
benediction ; and he is ever ready to re-utter in his own words 
the sentiments of good old Isabella Graham, when, nearing the 
end of her earthly pilgrimage, she wrote : 

" ' Dear native land ! May every blessing from above 
and beneath be thine — serenity of skj^, salubrity of air, fertility 
of soil — and pure and undefiled religion inspire thy sons and 
daughters with grateful hearts to love God and one another.' " 



532 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Speaking of a visit to liis native land, Andrew Carnegie 
says : " It was on Saturday, July IGtli, that we went over the 
border. The bridge across the boundary line was soon reached. 
When midway over a halt was called and a vent given to our 
enthusiasm. With three cheers for the land of the heatlier, 
shouts of Scotland forever, and the waving of hats and handker- 
chiefs, we dashed across the border. O Scotland, my own, my 
native land, your exiled son returns with love for you as ardent 
as ever warmed the heart of man for his country. It is God's 
mercy I was born a Scotchman, for I do not see how I could 
ever have been contented to be anything else. The little 
plucky dour deevil, set in her own ways, level-headed and 
shrewd, with an eye to the main chance always, and yet so 
lovingly weak, so fond, so led away by song or story, and so 
easily touched to fine issues, so leal, so true ! Ah ! you suit me, 
Scotia, and proud am I that I am your son." 

Mrs. Barr says that the Scotchman never loses sight of his 
native land. " His father's hearth is as sacred as an altar in 
his memory. A bluebell or a bit of heather can bring tears to 
his eyes ; and the lilt of a Jacobite song makes his heart thrill 
with an unparalleled loyalty. Those who saw John Campbell 
on the Broomilaw would have judged him to be a man indiffer- 
ent to all things but money and bills of lading. Those who 
saw him softly stepping through the old halls of Drumloch, or 
standing almost reverently before the hard, grim faces of his 
ancestors, would have called him an aristocrat who held all 
things cheap but an ancient home and a noble family." 

A learned professor of one of the Scotch universities 
once said that Scotland was remarkable for three things — 
songs, sermons and shillings. Commenting on this, Dr. Robert 
Ford says that while it cannot be disputed that she has an 



THE DOWEEST AND TENDERE8T OF MEN. 533 

enormous and ever-increasing store of these three things — and 
that, moreover, she loves them all — there is another quality of 
her many-sided nature which is more distinctly characteristic 
of the Scotch, and that is the faculty of original humor. " Not 
one in ten thousand of the Scotch people may be able to pro- 
duce a good song, or a good sermon ; and not one in twenty 
thousand of them may be able to ' gather meikle gear and baud 
it weel thegither ; ' but every Scotchman is a born humorist. 
Humor is a part and parcel of a Scotchman's very being. He 
may not live without it — may not breathe. Consequently it is 
found breaking out in the most unlikely as well as in the 
most likely places. It blossoms in the solemn assemblies of 
the people ; at meetings of kirk sessions ; in the city and 
town council chambers ; in our presbyteries ; our courts of 
justice, and in the high parliament of kirk itself. Famous 
specimens of it come down from the lonesome hillsides; from 
the cottage, bothy and farm ingle-nooks. It issues from the 
village inn, the smiddy, the kirkyard, and functions of feasting 
and sorrow give it birth as well as occasions of feasting and 
mirth. It drops from the lips of the learned and unlearned in 
the land ; and it is not more frequently revealed in the eloquence 
of the university savant than in the gibberish of the hobbling 
village and city natural." * 

Dr. Ford says that in all his reading he does not remember 
to have seen a satisfactory analysis of Scotch humor. Sydney 
Smith would never admit that the Scotch had any humor at all. 
" Their only idea of wit which prevails occasionally in the 
North," said he, "and which under the name of 'wut' is so 
infinitely distressing to people of good taste, is laughing im- 

* Thistledown. A Book of Scotch Humour, by Robert Ford. Alexander 
Gardner : Paisley and Paternoster Square, London. 



534 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

moderately at stated intervals." He declared that it would re- 
quire a surgical operation to get a joke well into the Scotch 
understanding. It must be that he either wrote " sarcastic," 
as Dr. Ford says, or that he was moved by prejudice, though 
even Charles Lamb had a somewhat similar notion of the 
matter. "No humor in Scotch folk!" exclaims Dr. Ford. 
"Every living Scotchman — every intelligent and unbiased 
Englishman as well — recognizes the irrelevancy of the indict- 
ment, and as often as it is introduced immediately laughs it out 
of the court of serious argument." 

Dr. Ford fills a volume with illustrations from which one 
may get an idea of the subtle quality of Scotch humor. Two 
Scotchmen, "messmates and bosom cronies, from* the same 
little clachan," happened to be stationed near each other when 
the now celebrated signal was given from the admiral's ship — 
England expects every man to do his duty. 

" No a word o' puir auld Scotland on this occasion," dole- 
fully remarked Geordie to Jock. 

Jock cocked his eye a moment, and turning to his com- 
panion — 

"Man, Geordie," said he, " Scotland kens weel eneucli that 
nae bairn o' hers needs to be tell't to do his duty — thafs just a 
hint to the Enylishers." 

During the time of the great Kussian war a countryman 
accepted the " Queen's shilling," and very soon thereafter was 
sent to the front. But he had scarcely time to receive his 
"bajDtism of fire" when he turned his back on the scenes of 
carnage, and immediately struck off in a bee-line for a distant 
haven of safety. A mounted officer, intercepting his retreat, 
demanded to know where he was going. 

"Whaur am I gaun?" said he. "Hame, of course; man. 



THE DOUREST AND TENDEBE8T OF MEN. 535 

this is awfu' wark; they're just killiii' ane anither ower 
there." 

A brother countryman took a different view of a similar 
situation. Just before his regiment entered into an engagement 
with the enemy, he was heard to pray in these terms : " O, 
Lord ! dinna be on oor side, an' dinna be on the tither side, but 
just stand ajee frae baith o' us for an oor or twa, an' ye'll see the 
toosiest fecht that was ever fochen." What a fine, rough hero 
was there ! 

Speaking of praying prior to entering into engagements'; 
recalls to Dr. Ford another good and equally representative, 
anecdote. It is told of two Scotch matrons. They were dis- 
cussing current events. 

"Eh, woman!" said one, "I see by the papers that oor 
sodgers liave been victorious again." 

"Ah, nae fear o' oor sodgers," replied the other. " They'll 
aye be victorious, for they aye pray afore they engage wi' the 
enemy." 

" But do you think the French'll pray too ? " questioned 
the first speaker. 

"The French pray!" sneered her friend. "Yatterin* 
craturs ! Wha wad ken what they said ?" 

What a charmingly innocent auld wife! Surely it was 
this same matron who once upon a time entered the village- 
grocery and asked for a pound of candles, at the same time 
laying down the price at which the article in question had 
stood fixed for some time. " Cawnils are up on account o' the; 
war. Anither bawbee, mistress," said the grocer. 

"Eh, megstie me!" was the response. "An' can it be the 
case that they really fecht wi' cawnil licht?" 

A Scotch blacksmith, being asked the meaning of meta- 



536 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

physics, explained as follows: "Well, Geordie, ye see, it's just 
like this. When the jDairty that listens disna ken what the 
pairty that speaks means an' when the pairty that speaks disna 
ken what he means himsel', thafs metapheesicsJ^ 

One of the peculiarites of the Scotch wit is that it never 
dies. At least it is often found in full bloom when the Scotch- 
man himself is dying. Dean Ramsay in his delightful collec- 
tion of Scotch stories tells of an old lady who lay ill. "A 
friend was trying to encourage her by expressing the hope that 
she would soon be better, and in the spring enjoy some of their 
country spring butter. "Spring butter,'' exclaimed the invalid ; 
" by that time I shall be buttering in heaven." And when at 
the point of death she heard some one say, "Her face has lost 
its color; it grows like a sheet of paper" — "Then I'm sure it 
maum be broon paper," said the dying woman. 

Of the heroism of the Scotch soldier every child is 
familiar. It is not so well known that the Scotch have an 
everyday heroism the record of which, if it could be written, 
would surpass that of their martial valor. There is nothing 
truer to the everyday life of the Scotch than Crockett's story 
of the Stickit Minister: 

"'It is more than seven years noAv,' said Robert, 'since I 
first kenned that my days were to be few. It was the year my 
father died, and left Harry and me by our lane. 

'"He left no sillar to speak of, just plenty to lay him 
decently in the kirk-yard among his forebears. I had been a 
year at the Divinity Hall then, and was going up to put in my 
discourses for the next session. I had been troubled with my 
breast for some time, and so called one day at the infirmary to 
get a word with Sir James. He was very busy when I went 
in, and never noticed me till the hoast took me. Then on a 



THE DOUREST AND TEND ERE ST OF MEN. 537 

sudden he looked up from his papers, came quickly over to me, 
put his own white handkerchief to my mouth, and quietly 
said : " Come into my room, laddie ! " Ay, he was a good man 
and a faithful, Sir James, if ever there was one. He told me 
that with care I might live five or six years, but it would need 
great care. Then a strange prickly coldness came over me, 
and I seemed to walk light-headed in atmosphere suddenly 
rarified. I think I know how the mouse feels under the air- 
pump.' 

"'What's that?' queried Saunders. 

'"A cruel ploy not worth speaking of,' continued the 
Stickit Minister. 'Well, I found something in my throat when 
I tried to thank him. But I came my ways home to the Dul- 
larg, and night and day I considered what was to be done, 
with so much to do and so little time to do it. It was clear 
that both Harry and me could not go through the college on 
the little my faither had left. So late one night I saw my way 
clear to what I should do. Harry must go, I must stay. I 
must come home to the farm, and be my own "man;" then I 
could send Harry to the college to be a doctor, for he had no 
call to the ministry, as once I thought I had. More than that, 
it was laid on me to tell Jessie Louden that Kobert Fraser was 
no better than a machine set to go five years. 

" ' jSTow, all these things I did, Saunders, but there's no 
use telling you what they cost in the doing. They were right 
to do, and they were done. I do not repent any of them. I 
would do them all over again were they to do, but it's been 
bitterer than I thought.' 

"The Stickit Minister took his head off his hand and 
leaned wearily back in his chair. 

"'The story went over the country that I had failed in my 



538 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

examinations, and I never said that I had not. But there were 
some that knew better who might have contradicted the report 
if they had liked. I settled down to the farm, and I put 
Harry through the college, sending all but a bare living to him 
in Edinburgh. I worked the work of the farm, rain and shine, 
ever since, and have been for these six years the "Stickit Min- 
ister " that all the world kens the day. Whiles Harry did not 
think that he got enough. He was always writing for more, 
and not so very pleased when he did not get it. He was aye 
different to me, ye ken, Saunders, and he canna be judged by 
the same standard as you and me.' 

"'I ken,' said Saunders McQuhirr, a spark of light lying 
in the quiet of his eyes. 

"'Well,' continued Robert Fraser, lightened by Saunders' 
apparent agreement, 'the time came when he was clear from 
college and wanted a practice. He had been ill-advised that 
he had not got his share of the farm, and he wanted it selled 
to share and share alike. Now I kenned, and you ken, Saun- 
ders, that it's no' worth much in one share, let alone two. So 
I got the place quietly . bonded, and bought him old Doctor 
Aitkin's practice in Cairn Edward with the money. 

"'I have tried to do my best for the lad, for it was laid on 
me to be my brother's keeper. He doesna come here much,' 
continued Robert, ' but I think he's not so ill against me as he 
was. Saunders, he Avaved his hand to me when he was gaun 
by the day ! ' 

"'That was kind of him,' said Saunders McQuhirr. 
"'Ay, was it no'?' said the Stickit Minister, eagerly, with a 
soft look in his eyes, as he glanced up at his brother's portrait 
in cap and gown, which hung over the china dogs on the 
mantelpiece. 



THE DOUREST AND TEND ERE ST OF MEN. 539 

*"I got my notice this morning that the bond is to be 
called up in November,' said Robert. ' So I'll be obliged to 
flit' 

"Saunders McQuhirr started to his feet in a moment. 
* Never,' he said, with the spark of fire now alive in his eyes, 
' never as lang as there's a beast on Drumquhat, or a j)Oun' in 
Cairn Edward Bank,' bringing down his clinched fist upon the 
Milton on the table. 

" ' No, Saunders, no,' said the Stickit Minister, very 
gently ; ' I thank you kindly, but I'll be flitted before that!'" 

The stubbornness of the Scotchman, or rather what he 
calls dourness, is proverbial ; but it is not so well known that 
alongside of his dourness one may be sure of finding an equal 
amount of tenderness. One of Ian Maclaren's best fugitive 
stories — I happened upon it some time ago in the British Weekly 
— illustrates this remarkable combination of traits. It tells of 
an old man who lay on his deathbed, and who demanded to 
be told the truth about his condition. The doctor, himself a 
young Scot, answered plainly that he could not recover, and 
then the old man asked when he would die, and the doctor 
thought early next morning. "Aboot daybreak," said the 
Scot, with much satisfaction, " as if, on the whole, he were con- 
tent to die, and much pleased he would be at the rising of the 
sun. He was a characteristic type of his nation, rugged in 
face and dry of manner, an old man, wlio had drifted some- 
how to this English city and was living there alone, and now 
he was about to die alone, without friends in a strano-e land. 
The nurse was very kind to him, and her heart went out to the 
quiet, self-contained man. She asked him whether he would 
like to see a clergyman, and said that the chaplain of the in- 
firmary was a good man. 



540 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

" ' A've nae doubt he is,' said the Seot, 'and that his meen- 
istrations wud be verra acceptable to English fouk, but a've 
never hed ony dealin's wi' Episcopalians. . He micht want to 
read a prayer, and I cudna abide that, and mebbe I cudna fol- 
low the texts in his English tongue,' 

" The nurse still lingered by his bed. He looked up to 
her and assured her he was in no need of consolation. 

" ' Saxty years ago ma raither gared me learn the wale 
(choice portion) of the Bible, and they're comin' up ane by 
ane in ma memory, but I thank ye kindly.' 

" As the nurse went back and forwards on her duties she 
heard her patient saying at intervals to himself : 'I know whom 
I have believed.' 'I am persuaded that neither life nor death.' 
Once again she heard him : ' Altho' the mountains depai't and 
the hills be removed,' but the rest she did not catch. 

" During the afternoon a lady came into the ward whose 
service to the Lord was the visitation of the sick, a woman 
after the type of Barnabas and Mary of Bethany. When she 
heard of the old man's illness and loneliness, whom no friend 
cam^e to see or comfort, she went to his bedside. ' You are very 
ill,' she said, ' my friend.' 

" * A'm deein',' he replied, with the exactness of his nation, 
which somewhat fails to understand the use of graceful circum- 
locution and gentle phrases. 

" 'Is there anything I can do for you ? Would you wish 
me to sing a few verses of a hymn ? Some sick people feel 
much comforted and soothed by singing; you would like, I 
think, to hear Bock of Ages,' and she sat down by his bedside 
and opened her book, while a patient beyond, who had caught 
what she said, raised his head to enjoy the singing. 

" ' Ye're verra kind, mem, and a'm muckle obleeged to ye, 



THE DOUREST AND TENDERE8T OF MEN. 541 

but a'm a Scot and ye' re English, and ye dinna understand. 
A' ma days liev I been protestin' against the use o' human 
hymns in the praise of God ; a've left three kirks on that 
account, and raised ma testimony in public places, and noo 
wud' ye send me into eternity wi' the sough of a hymn in ma 
ears ? ' 

" For a moment the visitor had no reply, for in the course 
of all her experiences, during which she had come across many 
kinds of men and women, she had never yet chanced upon this 
kind of Scot. The patients in the infirmary were not distin- 
guished by their religious scruples, and if they had some preju- 
dices they turned on large and full-blooded distinctions between 
Protestant and Catholic, but never entered into the subjects of 
doctrine. 

"'Ye'll excuse me, mem, for I'm not ungratefu',' he con- 
tinued, 'and I wud like to meet yir wishes when ye've been so 
kind to me. The doctor says I canna live long, and it's 
possible that ma strength ma' siuie give way, but a'll tell ye 
what a'm willin' to do.' 

" The visitor waited anxiously to know what service he 
was going to render her, and what comfort she might offer to 
him, but both were beyond her guessing. 

'"Sae lang as a've got strength and ma reason continues 
clear, a'm prepared to argue with you concerning the lawful- 
ness of using onything except the Psalms of David in the 
praises of God either in j^ublic or in private.' 

" Dear old Scot, the heir of many a covenanting tradition 
and the worthy son of covenanting martyrs, it was a strange 
subject of discussion for a man's last hour, but the man who 
could be true to the jots and the tittles of his faith in pain of 
body and in face of death was the stuff out of which heroes 



542 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

and saints are made. He belonged to a nation who might 
sometimes be narrow and over-concerned with scruples, but 
which knew that a stand must be taken somewhere, and where 
it took a stand was prepared to die. 

"The visitor was a wise as well as gracious woman, and 
grasped the heart of the situation. ' No, no,' she said, ' we will 
not speak about the things wherein we dijffer, and I did not know 
the feeling of the Scots about the singing of hymns. But I 
can understand how you love the Psalms, and how dear to you 
is your metrical version. Do you know I have been in the 
Highlands of Scotland, and have heard the Psalms sung, and 
the tears came into my eyes at the sound of the grave, sweet 
melody, for it was the music of a strong and pious people.' 

" As she spoke the hard old Scot's face began to soften,, 
and one hand which was lying outside the bedclothes repeated 
the time of a Scot's Psalm tune. He was again in the country 
church of his boyhood, and saw his father and mother going 
into the Table seats, and heard them singing: 

" ' 0, thou my soul, bless God the Lord ; 
And all that in me is, 
Be stirred up His holy name 
To magnify and bless.' 

"*More than that, I know some of your Psalm tunes, and 
I have the v/ords in my hymn-book; perhaps I have one of 
the Psalms which you would like to hear.' 

" ' Div ye think that ye cud sing the twenty-third Psalm, 
"The Lord's my Shepherd, Til not want?" for I wud count 
it verra comfortin'.' 

" ' Yes,' she said; 'I can, and it will please me very much 
to sing it, for I think I love that Psalm more than any hymn.^ 

" ' It never runs dry,' murmured the Scot. 



TEE DOUREST AND TENDEREST OF MEN. 543 

" So she sang it from beginning to end in a low, sweet 
voice, slowly and reverently, as she had heard it sung in Scot- 
land. He joined in no word, but ever he kept time with his 
hand and his heart, while his eyes looked into the things which 
were far away. 

" After she ceased he repeated to himself the last two lines: 

" ' And in God's house for evermore 
My dwelling-place sliall be.' 

" ' Thank ye, thank ye,' he said, after a little pause, and 
then both were silent for a few minutes, because she saw that 
he was in his own country, and did not wish to bring him back 
by her foreign accent. 

" ' Mem, ye've dun me the greatest kindness ony Christian 
cud do for anither as he stands on the banks of the Jordan,' 

"For a minute he was silent again, and then he said : 

"'Am gaein' to tell ye somethin', and a' think ye'll un- 
derstand. Ma wife and me wes married thirty-five years, and 
ilka nicht of oor married life we sang a Psalm afore we gaed to 
rest. She took the air and a' took the bass, and we sang the 
Psalms through frae beginning to end twal times. She was 
taken frae me ten years ago, and the nicht afore she dee'd we 
sang the twenty-third Psalm. A've never sang the Psalm 
since, and a' didna join wi' ye when ye sang it, for a'm waitin' 
to sing it wi' her new oor Father's hoose the mornin's mornin', 
whar there'll be nae nich nor partin' evermore.' 

"And this is how one Englishwoman found out that the 
Scot is at once the dourest and the tenderest of men." 



XLIV. 

THE GENEROUS HIBERNIAN. 

William Carleton, an Irish author of two generations 
ago, describes his countrymen as a " hot-headed, affectionate 
people, the very fittest materials in the world for either the 
poet or the educator ; capable of great culpability, and of great 
energetic goodness; sudden in their passions as the red, rapid 
gush of their running streams; changeable in their temper as 
the climate that sends them the melody of sun and shower; at 
times rugged and gloomy as the moorland sides of their moun- 
tains ; at others soft and good as the sunlit meadows of their 
pleasant vales." To these traits Carleton might have added 
loyalty to religious faith, a generous heart, and, as Dinah Craik 
has said, a sweet courtesy which would always rather say a 
kind thing than an unkind one. 

The trait which most widely distinguishes the Irishman is 
his loyalty to his religion. The Irishman has always been a 
religious being. From the earliest times Ireland was known 
among navigators as the Holy Isle. "In what that holiness 
may have consisted precisely," says the Kev. A. J. Thebaud, 
"it is impossible to say. All we know is that foreign navi- 
gators, who were acquainted with the world as far as it was 
then known, whose ships had visited the harbors of all nations, 
could find no more apt expression to describe the island than 
to say that, morally, it was 'a holy spot,' and physically ' a fair, 
green meadow,' or, as her children to this day call her, ' the 
green gem of the sea.'" 

(545) 



546 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

As Mr. Thebaud 'says, the race was never distinguished for 
its fondness for trade, for its manufactures, for depth of policy, 
for worldly enlightenment; "its annals speak of no lustre of con- 
quest among its people ; the brilliant achievements of foreign 
invasion, the high political and social aspirations which gener- 
ally give lustre to the national life of many people, belong not 
to them. But religious feeling, firm adherence to faith, invin- 
cible attachment to the form of Christianity they had received 
from St. Patrick, formed at all times their striking character- 
istics." 

Justin McCarthy says that the Irish peasant is not made 
to be a materialist or a skeptic of any kind, and adds ; " I do 
not know what would become of him if he were to take to 
agnosticism. I do not know what would become of him if he 
were to be dispossessed of his cheerful faith that everything is 
ruled for the best. Very likely he would turn out a terribly 
bad lot then, but the event is not likely to happen." 

Whatever else the Irishman may be, he is always a firm 
believer. He believes in believing. He accepts what is told 
him by his church without reserve, and he is not troubled by 
the fact that Christianity is supernatural. He never complains 
that his religion requires too great a stretch of faith. He is never 
alarmed at the onslaughts of science. "For him," says Mr. 
Thebaud, "nature is never separated from its Maker. The 
hand of God is ever visible in all mundane affairs, and the 
frightful parting between the spiritual and material worlds, 
first originated by the Baconian philosophy, which culminates 
in our days in the almost open negation of the spiritual, and 
-thus materializes all things, is with justice viewed by the chil- 
dren of St. Patrick with a holy horror as leading to atheism, 
if it be not atheism itself.'.' 



'4 



THE GENEROUS HIBERNIAN. 547 

The amiability of the Irishman is proverbiaL Indeed, to 
a large part of the world the Irishman stands for a good joke. 
Mr. Justin McCarthy, in an article in the YotUh's Companion, 
says that he has never been struck with the great mirthfulness 
among Irish jDeople which has so much imiDressed the outside 
world. He admits that it may be because he lived in the 
gloomier Ireland at first, and has seen more lately a stronger 
and more earnest Ireland. Still his impression of the Irish 
Celt is not that of a perpetual merrymaker and buffoon. Mr. 
-McCarthy admits that the Irishman has native humor, and it 
flashes and bubbles in the oddest way on slight provocation. 
But he thinks that the habitual tone of his character is what 
we would describe as a sort of cheerful melancholy. " Melan- 
choly, of course, is black in hue, as its name tells, and the 
gravity, or whatever it is, of the Irish peasant is not blacky 
There is nothing of the pessimist about him. He loves to 
believe that everything is for the best ; but if he ever had the 
rollickino; fun in him which we find that he had in novels and 
on the stage, it iiiust have been before my time." 

Mr. McCarthy thinks that nothing is more characteristic 
of the Irish peasant than his patience. In an Irish county 
which he represented in Parliament for many years he knew 
of old men and women, broken down with years of poverty and 
infirmity, drawing to the close of their lives in a workhouse, 
perhaps, who yet, if you expressed too much commiseration for 
them, would be ready to say in tones of absolute conviction, 
"Oh, well, sir, sure God has been very good to us all our 
days." 

The amiability of the Irishman is strikingly revealed ni 
the fact that however rough, or uncouth, or ignorant he may 
be, he is never uncivil or rude, or self-asserting. I doubt if 



548 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

one ever received from Irish lips a rude answer to a civil 
question. An English lady who visited Ireland for the first 
time a few years ago told Mr, McCarthy that what struck lier 
most was the fact that the peasants seemed to her to have the 
manners of gentlemen. " They took off their hats when she met 
them on the road ; they ran to open for her any gate she wanted 
to pass through ; they would go any length out of their way to 
show her hers ; they were absolutely courteous, but not servile." 
As much mio;ht be said for the manners of Irish women. "The 
charming gaiety and frankness of the Irish ladies," says Thack- 
eray, "has been noted and admired by every foreigner who has 
had the good fortune to mingle in their society. I hope it is 
not detracting from the merit of the upper classes to say that 
the lower are not a whit less pleasant. I never saw in any 
country such a general grace of manner and ladyhood. In the 
midst of their gaiety, too, it must be remembered that they are 
the chastest of women, that no country in Europe can boast of 
such general purity. In regard to the Munster ladies, I had 
the pleasure to be present at two of their evening parties at 
Cork, and must say that they seem to excel the English ladies 
not only in wit and vivacity, but in the still more important 
article of the toilet. They are as well dressed as French women, 
and incomparably handsomer." Speaking of the gentlemen of 
Cork, Thackeray says that every stranger must mark the ex- 
traordinary degree of literary taste and talent amongst them, 
and the wit and vivacity of their conversation. " The Cork 
citizens are the most book-loving men I ever met. The town 
lias sent to England a number of literary men, and of reputa- 
tion too, and is not a little proud of their fame. The young 
clerks and shopmen seem as much au fait as their employers, 
and many are the conversations I heard about the merits of 



THE GENEROUS HIBERNIAN. 54{> 

this writer or that. I think, in walking the streets and looking 
at the ragged urchins crowding there, every Englishman must 
remark that the superiority of intelligence is there and not 
with us." Thackeray relates that he listened to two boys 
almost in rags: they were lolling from the quay balustrade, 
" and talking about one of the Ptolemys ! Talking very well, 
too. One of them had been reading in Kollin, and was detail- 
ing his information with a great deal of eloquence and fire." 

Speaking of the wake, which has been generally accepted 
as one of the most serious reflections upon Irish character, Mr. 
McCarthy says that it is fast disappearing from most parts of 
Ireland, though it was still a great popular institution in his 
time. " When a man or woman died, all the friends of the 
family were expected to drop into the wake. It would have 
been thought a terrible thing if either the dead or the bereaved 
family had been left alone through the dreary watches of the 
night. So the friends and neighbors gathered in, and endeav- 
ored to keep uj) the spirits of the family with consoling words 
to begin with, and then with encouraging anecdotes intended to 
divert attention away from the sad conditions, and finally with 
jokes and comic songs. 

Mr. McCarthy remembers being present at one of these 
ceremonials, when a visitor, a woman, accosted the mother of a 
girl who was lying dead in the room and offered her congratu- 
lations, no doubt ]3erfectly sincere, on the cross that heaven 
had given her for her good. " The same visitor an hour or 
two later was asked and consented to favor the comjDany with 
a comic song. Not by any means incredible to me is the story 
of the attendant at a wake who begged to be allowed to call 
upon the gentleman sitting next to the coffin for a comic song. 
I have seen love-making, courtship, and very harmless kinds of 



550 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

romping going on at some of these country wakes when I was 
a boy. 

" The feeling of grief for the loss of the dead was sincere 
and intense, but it seemed congenial with the Irish nature to 
endeavor to shake it off, to put a bold front upon it, and to 
show as much attention and civility to the guests as though 
nothing particular had happened. ' My son is dead, my 
daughter is dead, true, but my guest is entitled to my hospi- 
tality all the same.' " 

Mr. McCarthy insists that the widely prevailing notion 
that the Irish peasant is a tremendous drinker of whiskey is 
altogether wrong, and exclaims : " Poor fellow ! I wonder 
where he would get the money to pay for very frequent drinks 
of the national beverage, as it is called." He also declares that 
the neighborhood faction fights, concerning which so much has 
been written, have long since ceased to rage. They were going 
on still in various parts of the country in his earliest days, 
*'just as the duel was still not altogether unknown among the 
gentry of the time. I knew when I was a boy two or three 
men still not old who had fought duels, one of whom had 
killed his man. In the same way the faction fights were still 
a sort of reality. One never hears of them now." 

Of the patriotism of the Irish even the children are familiar. 
" More, perhaps, than any other people on earth," says Mr. 
Thebaud, " is there for the great bulk of them community of 
traditions and feeling, binding them together into a firm and 
indestructible unity ; and who shall say that they feel no 
love for their past, because that past has been clouded with 
sorrow ? Nay, this fact makes the past dearer, and tends all 
the more to direct their hopes and fears to the same future — a 
future, indeed, still dim and uncertain, and not to be named 



THE GENEROUS HIBERNIAN. 551 

with perfect certainty, but wrapped in mists like the morn- 
ing ; yet the faint flush of the dawn is already there that 
shall pale and die away when the full orb of the sun ap- 
pears."* 

Mr. Thebaud says of the unanimity so striking in all Irish- 
men that " though private disputes may be taken up among 
them with such ardor that their quarrels have become prover- 
bial, when the question refers to their country or their God, in 
a moment they are united, suddenly transformed into steady 
friends, ready to shed their blood side by side for the great 
objects which entirely absorb their natures. " This feeling it 
is which forms the soul of a nation. Wherever this is to be 
found, there is an indestructible nationality; wherever it is ab- 
sent, there is only a dead body, however strong may seem its 
government, however vast its armies, however high its so-called 
culture and refinement." The same writer says that, these re- 
flections being kej)t in view, "judicious men will agree that,, 
among Europeans at least, there is scarcely any other nation- 
ality so strong and vigorous as the Irish. Their traditional 
feeling keeps their past ever present to their eyes ; their ardent, 
nature hopes ever against hope. Misfortunes which would 
utterly break down and dishearten any other people leave them 
still full of bright anticipations, and, as they seem to weep over 
the cold body of a dear mother — Erin, their country — they 
think only of her resurrection." 

In an impassioned plea for Ireland the Kev. Thomas N. 
Burke, the Irish orator, asks : " Has she ever in that long- 
record of our history — has she ever wronged or oppressed any 
people? Never ! Has she ever attempted to plunder from any 

* The Irish Race in the Past and the Present, by Rev. Aug. J. Thebaud^ 
S. J. New York : Peter F. Collier. 



552 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

people their sacred birthright of liberty? Never! Has she ever 
refused, upon the invitation of the church and her own con- 
science, to undo the chains and to strike them off the limbs of 
the slave? Never! Has she ever drawn that sword, which 
she has been wielding for centuries, in an unjust or doubtful 
cause? Never! Blood has stained the sword of Ireland for 
ages; but never did Ireland's sword shed a drop of blood un- 
justly, but only in defence of the highest and holiest and best 
of causes." 



XLV. 

THE COURAGEOUS WELSHMAN. 

Ammianus describes the ancient Celts as " almost all tall 
of stature, very ftiir, red-haired, and horrible from the fierce- 
ness of their eyes, fond of strife, and haughtily insolent. A 
whole band of strangers would not endure one of them, aided 
in his brawl by his powerful and blue-eyed wife; especially 
when, with swollen neck and gnashing teeth, poising her huge 
white arms, she begins, joining kicks to blows, to put forth her 
fists like stones from twisted strings of a catapult. Most of 
their voices are terriffic and threatening, as well when they are 
quiet as when they are angry. All ages are thought fit for 
war, and an old man is led out to be armed with the same 
vigor of heart as the man in his prime, with limbs hardened 
by cold and continued labor, and a contempt of many even 
real dangers." 

After two thousand years the courage of the Celts remains 
almost unimpaired. Their fighting qualities have never been 
surpassed. Csesar declared that his heavy armed legions were 
no match for such an enemy. Indeed, it is believed that if, 
their capacity for union had been equal to their bravery they 
would have annihilated the Roman invaders. It was only 
because they attacked the common enemy singly that they 
were driven back, though they were never absolutely con- 
quered. Tacitus declares that one hundred and forty years 
after the Celtic invasion the Britons were reduced to obedience, 

(553) 



554 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

but not to bondage. Caesar succeeded in controlling only tlie 
seashore, and while his successors and the Saxons, the Danes 
and the Normans gradually reduced the tribes in several parts 
of the island, it is only within recent times that the Celts in 
some sections can be said to have really submitted to the rule 
of any master except their own chief. Dr. Kobert Brown says 
that there is no ground for asserting, as Freeman and Green 
have done, that the Britons were exterminated by the Saxons, 
those who fled into Wales and other remote parts excepted. 
In all likelihood the conquerors and the conquered amalga- 
mated, and in time became one people. Those who fled into 
Wales lived as an independent community under their own 
sovereigns for more than six hundred years. These have since 
been known as the Welsh, though they themselves prefer to be 
known as Cymry, which means " with land," that is, a people 
having a common country. 

King Henry II., in answer to the inquiries of Emanuel, 
emperor of Constantinople, respecting Britain, replied that " in 
part of the island there was a people called Welsh, so bold 
and ferocious that when unarmed they did not fear to en- 
counter an armed force, being ready to shed their blood in 
defence of their country, and to sacrifice their lives for military 
renown ; for when the trumpet sounds the husbandman leaves 
his plough, and rushes to the onset with as much eagerness as 
the courtier from the palace." 

It has been often remarked that the qualities of mind 
which the Celt possesses are fitted for "sudden dashes, but not 
for long-sustained efforts," such as those demanded of a line of 
conquerors and rulers. They are to-day, as they were in the 
days of Tacitus, good soldiers but indifferent citizens. " When 
it comes to capacity for political organization, the Celt has 



THE COURAGEOUS WELSHMAN. 555 

little chance with the Saxon." He has the courage to conquer 
a country and the poetic temperament to write its ballads; but 
when he comes to model its laws, "sink private opinion in the 
common sense of the meeting, and individual hobbies for the 
general good, the Celt is apt to prove utterly impracticable." 

The Welsh have a lively imagination, and much enthusi- 
asm, which, however, is not always controlled by discretion. 
They are polite by nature, though it has been claimed that 
their politeness is apt to diverge into insincerity. At home 
they are contented, amiable and brave in enduring adversity. 
If quick to anger they are easily pacified, and if they do not 
always make stable friends, they are the best of friends while 
the amity lasts. 

Few races have been more generally misunderstood than 
the Welsh. Our word "welsh" — to cheat in a horse-race — 
well expresses the repute in which they are held by the Eng- 
lish. They seem to have had poor success in winning the good 
opinion of their neighbors, but, as an old writer says, "in the 
mountains and secluded parts of Wales, as the interior of Caer- 
narvonshire, Merionethshire and Denbighshire^ that are yet 
scarcely known to the English tourist, they differ very essen- 
tially from what will be observed near any frequented road. 
The people seem there to have an innocence and simplicity 
of character unknown in the populous parts of our own country. 
Amongst these it is that we are to search for those original 
traits and that native hospitality so much the boast of the 
Welsh writers. Wherever the English have had uninter- 
rupted communication with the people they have offered an 
irresistible temptation for the lower classes of the inhabitants 
to practice impositions ; in such situation the people differ 
little from the like class among us." 



556 THE BBIOHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

The same writer observes that rustic bashfulness and 
reserve seem to be general features in the character of the 
Welsh people, " and strangers unaccustomed to their manners 
have often mistaken these for indications of sullenness. It is 
usual to say of them that they are very irascible. This may 
be the case, but from what I have myself seen I am inclined 
to think that the natural rapidity of their expression in a lan- 
guage not understood has often been construed into passion 
without any other more certain grounds." 

As I have already intimated, they are remarkable for the 
cheerfulness and content which they display under privations 
which few of other races would endure. " Flummery," says a 
writer, "buttermilk, and coarse barley bread, form much of 
their food; I have often seen the laborers of respectable farmers 
dining out of a bowl of flummery (a sour jelly made from oat- 
husks), with such thankful content as made the remembered 
fare of an English farm kitchen seem absolutely sumjotuous by 
the contrast; and I have sometimes thought that a temporary 
residence among these cheerful hard-feeding mountaineers 
might be a salutary lesson to some of the croaking consumers 
of beef, bacon, pudding and ale in England." 

The weakness of the Welsh for heraldry is thus defended 
by an old writer: "The aristocracy of Wales have an ancestry 
which in antiquity and position need fear no comparison with 
others. A large j^^oportion can trace back much beyond the 
age of the Norman conquest, and there begin or finish their 
lineage, not with adventurer knights, but with the natural lords 
and princes of the land, whose gentility may be naturally sup- 
posed to be of immemorial age. No middle-class population, 
no peasant population is more free and independent in feeling, 
more moral, well-ordered and hence strong than that of Wales 



THE COURAGEOUS WELSHMAN. 657 

at the present time; but neither personal liberty nor conscious- 
ness of power from numbers and growing intelligence has cut 
off the Welshman from his moorings of respect for the owner 
of the land, the heir of the house, the traditions and preju- 
dices of his forefathers." 

It is claimed by the Welsh — and their claim has fully as 
much ground as any other — that the credit for the introduction 
of Christianity into Britain is due to Claudia, a Welsh lady 
belonging to Csesar's household. The circumstances, as related 
by Dr. Joseph Cross, are these : " Shortly after the invasion of 
Britain many Welsh soldiers joined the Boman army, and 
several Welsh families went and resided at Borne. Amono; 
the latter were Claudia and her husband. Saint Paul was 
then a prisoner under Nero, dwelling, however, ' in his own 
hired house,' and receiving all who came to hear the word of 
God. Under his ministry Claudia was converted to Chris- 
tianity. She soon returned to her native country, and scat- 
tered 'the seed of the Kingdom' among her own people. This 
was in the year of our Lord sixty-three. 

"About a century after this, Faganus and Daminicanus 
went to Borne, were converted there, and became ' able min- 
isters of the New Testament.' In the year of our Lord 180 
they were sent back to Wales to preach to their own country- 
men. They were zealous and successful laborers. They 
opposed the pagan superstitions of the Welsh with wonderful 
energy. They pursued Druidism to its dark retirements, and 
poured upon it the withering blaze of the gospel. Through 
.their jd reaching Lucius, king of Wales, was brought to em- 
brace Christianity. He was the first king that ever bowed to 
the Prince of Peace. The royal convert was exceedingly zeal- 
ous in the propagation of the truth. The Macedonian cry 



558 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

issued from the throne of Wales an earnest appeal to Eleuthe- 
rius for help. Then 'the word of the Lord had free course/ 
and was glorified." 



i 



XL VI. 

AMERICANS THROUGH FOREIGN EYES. 

Two generations ago, when it was the latest European 
fashion to sneer at everything American, Lady Wortley 
wrote : *' Great injustice has been done to the Americans, and 
we have been accustomed too implicitly to believe the often 
unfair and unfounded reports of prejudiced travelers. Instead 
of discourteous and disobliging manners we find all that is most 
civil and oblio-ino- amons; the most educated. No doubt, occa- 
sionally, some of the faults so unsparingly attributed to them 
may be found, but they appear to me, as far as I have had any 
opportunity of judging as yet, a really hospitable, kind- 
hearted, and generous-minded people." 

Lady Wortley traveled extensively in the United States, 
and wrote that the more she saw of American society the 
more she liked it. She thought that Americans were a pecu- 
liarly sensitive people, yet very forbearing and not easily 
offended, and she was sure that the accusation of conceit usu- 
ally brought against them had little or no foundation. "As 
far as I have seen," she wrote, " their candor appears to be far 
more remarkable than their conceit." She was especially 
struck with the good temper, obligingness, and utter unselfish- 
ness displayed by Americans in traveling. Speaking of the 
sympathy, which is one of the distinguishing traits of the 
American character, Lady Wortley said that while the Amer- 
ican will confront with the utmost carelessness all kinds of 

(559^ 



560 TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

hardships, clangers and privations possible under the most 
appalling circumstances and firmest presence of mind, his 
noble feelings will thrill at a tale of the sorrows of others, 
and his self-possession fails him when some affecting instance 
appeals to his unselfish and generous sympathies. " If the 
true hero nature lives anywhere, it is in the American ; if the 
age of chivalry is not dead — though Burke declared it was in 
the old world of Europe — if, in short, chivalry still lives on 
earth, it is in the great and mighty West." 

In her account of America Lady Wortley recalls an amus- 
ing story illustrative of the coolness and self-possession of the 
New Englander. A man sent his son for a log to put on the 
fire. The son brought a mere stick, and got a whij^ping for his 
pains, so the young gentleman went out for a large log, and 
never returned ; at least, not until twenty-five years afterwards, 
when one evening the old gentleman was calling to one of his 
grandsons to bring in a large log for the fire, and in walked his 
long-absent boy. The old gentleman looked quietly up, exam- 
ined the log, threw it carelessly on the fire, and said, in the 
most casual way: "This 'ere log will do, but you've been a darn 
long time a'fetchin it." 

Max O'Rell, who perhaps knows us better than any other 
French writer, declares that the well-read, well-bred American 
is the most delightful. of men, and that good society in America 
is the wittiest, most genial, and most hospitable he has met 
with. He thinks that the American is on the road to the 
possession of all that can contribute to the well-being and suc- 
cess of a nation, though he thinks we have missed the path 
that leads to real hapjDiness. Our domestic joys, he insists, are 
more shadowy than real, and he reminds us that to live in a 
whirl is not to live well. " Jonathan himself sometimes has 



AMERICANS THROUGH FOREIGN EYES. 561 

his regrets at finding himself drawn into such a frantic race, 
but he dechires that it is out of his power to hang back. If it 
were given to men to live twice on this planet, I could under- 
stand his living his first term a /' Americaine, so as to be able 
to enjoy quietly, in his second existence, the fruits of his toil in 
the first. Seeing that only one sojourn here is admitted us, I. 
think the French are right in their study to make it a long 
and happy one." 

Speaking of the popular notion that Americans are the 
most zealous worshipers of the Golden Calf on earth, he says ; 
"If the American thirsts after money, it is not for the love of 
money, as a rule, but for the love of that which money can buy. 
In other words, avarice is a vice almost unknown in America. 
Jonathan does not amass gold for the pleasure of adding pile 
to pile and counting it. He pursues wealth to improve his 
position in life, and to surround those dependent upon him 
with advantages and luxuries. He spends his money as gaily 
as he pockets it, especially when it is a question of gratifying 
his wife or daughters, who are the objects of his most assidu- 
ous attention. He is the first to admit that their love for 
diamonds is as absurd as it is costly, but he is good-humored, 
and says : ' Since they like them, why should they not have 
them?'" 

Max O'Rell believes that the greater part of the Ameri- 
cans care but little for money. " If the millionaire inspires 
respect, it is as much for the activity and talent he has displayed 
in the winning of his fortune as for the dollars themselves. 
An American, who had nothing but his dollars to boast of, 
might easily see all English doors open to him, but his millions 
alone would not give him the e?itree into the best society of 
Boston and New York. There he would be requested to pro- 



562 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

duce some other recommendation. An American girl who was 
rich, but plain and stupid, would always find some English 
duke, French marquis, or Italian count ready to marry her, 
but she will have great difficulty in finding an American gentle- 
man who would look ujDon her fortune or her dot as a sufficient 
indemnity." 

Max O'Rell notes that at a public dinner the millionaire 
does not find a place of honor reserved for him, as he would in 
England. The seats of honor are reserved for men of talent. 
*'Even in politics money does not lead to honor." 

In answer to the accusation so often made that Americans 
are given to bragging, the same writer asks : " May not men 
who have been marvelous be permitted a certain amount of 
self-glorification ? " and adds : " It is said, too, that their eccen- 
tricity constantly leads them into folly and license. Is it not 
better to have the liberty to err than to be compelled to run 
straight in leash ? If they occasionally vote like children, they 
will learn with age. It is by voting that people learn to vote." 
Summing up his estimate of America and Americans, Max 
O'Rell says : "Is there any country in Europe in which morals 
are better regulated, work better paid, or education wider 
spread? Is there a country in Europe where you can find 
such natural riches and such energy to turn them to account ; 
so many people with a consciousness of their own intellectual 
and moral force ; so many schools, where the child of the 
millionaire and the child of the poor man study side by side ; 
so many libraries, where the boy in rags may read the history 
of liis country, and be fired by the exploits of its heroes? Can 
you name a country with so many learned societies, so many 
newspapers, so many charitable institutions, or so much wide- 
spread comfort? M. Kenan, wishing to turn himself into a 



AMERICANS THROUGH FOREIGN EYES. 563 

prophet of ill omen, one day predicted that, if France continued 
republican, she would become a second America. May nothing 
worse befall her ! " 

Ian Maclaren, who has been recently giving us his im- 
pressions of American life and character in the 23ages of The 
Outlook, is much taken with the magnanimity which the 
American displays in the affairs of practical life. He says 
" that if a merchant fails in England he is, as a rule, made to 
feel the weight of his position very severely, and it is only a 
man with great courage and determination who can retrieve 
himself" On the other hand, " in the States, if misfortune has 
befallen a man, and he has not played the knave, he is regarded 
with sympathy, as a soldier wounded in battle. Friends rall^'- 
round him and bring him succor, they set him on his feet and 
give liim another chance, and through all his trial they abate 
not one jot of cordiality either to him or his family. The 
American is not more honorable than his English confrere, but 
he is more generous; and this need not arise from his beino- 
a better man, but from his living in a larger place. The 
struggle for existence in an old country is severe and chills 
many kindly impulses ; and in a new country there is room 
enough and to spare for every person. Life is wild and buoy- 
ant and full of vicissitudes. If one have nothing to-day, he 
may be rich to-morrow; and if he be rich to-day, he may be 
poor to-morrow. The tides run in and out with immense 
velocity and the scene is ever changing. 

" On our side of the Atlantic a man fights his way up with 
arduous and enduring labor, grasps his possessions with fierce 
tenacity and safeguards himself on every hand. He stands on 
his narrow ledge of success, and receives grudging recognition 
from those beside whom he has established himself. Should 

■29 



564 THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

he slip and try to hang on with his hands, the others will think 
twice before they stoop to pull him up, both because his disap- 
pearance will leave more room where there is hardly foothold 
for themselves, and because the strain of arresting his descent 
might end in their going down with him. People are very 
cautious about involving themselves with a commercial unfor- 
tunate where there is so little to come and go in the way of 
opportunity and where social position is so painfully won. On 
the other side each newcomer takes his slice, as it were, of the 
rich virgin prairie, and if he has bad times his neighbors 
help him without calculation, for they have as much as they 
can face. Next year they may have their share of bad luck, 
and he will stand it manfully. One does not desire to minimize 
the overflowing good nature and brotherliness which are below 
this charity, but it is undoubtedly a virtue of a big, progressive, 
almost inexhaustible country." 

Maclaren was charmed with the manners of the best 
American society. He calls attention to the fact that between 
a cultured American and an uncultured there is as much dif- 
ference as between, say, Matthew Arnold and "Punch's" 'Arry. 
He thinks there is much about the uncultured American that 
is attractive, but he records his honest oj)inion that an edu- 
cated American is the most courteous person he has ever met 
on his travels. " One may have a j)ardonable j^ride in the 
good form of an English gentleman — an instinctive sense of 
what is becoming — and yet desire the cordiality which is very 
taking in an American ; one may admit that in what may be 
called the decorated style of manners a Frenchman is past- 
master, and still miss that note of simplicity which is found in 
an American. There is, indeed, as appears to a dull male j^er- 
son, a certain analogy between the superiority of an American 



AMEBICAS^S THROUGH FOBEIGX EYES. 565 

man in manners and an American .v. .^^ai^ in dress (her man- 
ners, it goes without saying, are charming, vivacious, sympa- 
thetic, fascinating), for she has added to the severe good taste 
of an Englishwoman a certain grace, and redeemed the clever- 
nes of the Parisian fix)m the suspicion of trickery." 

Maclaren thinks that the American is entitled to this 
praise, that his manners **' are not spoiled by affectation, nor 
frozen into icy inhumanity. He does not wear a single eye- 
glass for ornamental purposes, nor assume an expression of 
countenance from which all interest in anvthinsr has been stu- 
diously eliminated. Xor does he lal3or to reduce the crisp, sinewy 
English speech to the sound of jargon, nor is he accustomed 
: :. regard the outside world as Philistines. An absolutely well- 
bred man in speech and deed, he alloT^ you to know that he 
has a heart ; he can shake hands like a man ; he is perfectly 
afl^ble, and does not speak a patois in which * ah ' separates 
each word from its neighbor, and * don't you know ' fills up 
the frequent interstices of thought." 

The same writer says that the peculiar charm of the 
American manners is their genuine and attractive simplicity. 

• In one way it strikes the foreigner that the States lose by 
not having a leisured class, with traditions of pnblic service, 
of incorruptible honor, of trained statemanship. In another 
way the States gain by counting all their citizens eligible for 

ublic duty, because the rulers are not a caste, do not give them- 
selves airs, are affiible and acc^sible. The indefinable atmo- 
sphere which surrounds one of our civil officials, and which he 
:^9ver throws off, which he breathes with evident relish, but 
^hich is rather rare for ordinary lungs, cannot gather in the 
: erpetual motion of the American life. A citizen is summoned 
from his bank or office or manufactory or from the editor's 



566 THE BBIOHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

chair to a seat, say, in the cabinet, not because he belongs to a 
certain family, or even because he has much personal influence, 
but because he is the best man for the post. He is not chan'ged 
by the sudden elevation, and is exactly the same man in Wash- 
ington as he was a month ago in Boston or Chicago. When 
his term of office is over, he withdraws to the ranks again, and 
has not in his talk the note of a bureaucrat. No man with 
common sense tries to stand apart in the States, or hedge him- 
self round with ceremony." 

The chivalry of the Americans never fails to attract the 
foreigner. The writer whom I have just quoted says — in con- 
trasting the bearing of the American toward women to Parisian 
civility — " that the reason one is suspicious of the French is 
that though a Parisian — who is a Frenchman raised to the 
highest degree — may lift his hat on entering a shop, he would 
show the shop-girl no deference on the street, while French 
fiction is a standinsf insult to womankind." 

He adds that from end to end of America a woman is 
respected, protected, served, honored. This statement will be 
regarded by Americans as a little sweeping: " If she enters an 
elevator, every man uncovers ; in a street-car she is never 
allowed to stand if a man can give her a seat ; on the railways, 
conductors, porters, and every other kind of official hasten to 
wait on her ; any man daring to annoy her would come to 
grief." He is altogether correct, however, when he says that 
the poorest woman can travel with security and comfort in 
America. " Perhaps the American woman," he goes on to say, 
" may be unconsciously exacting at times — it is the penalty of 
absolute monarchy; perhaps the men exceed in deference when 
they allow the women to read for them and think for them in 
everything except politics — this is the drawback of hereditary 



AMERICANS THROUGH FOREIGN EYES. 567 

loyalty. The American queen might complete an almost per- 
fection by granting her subjects an occasional experience of 
equality, upon which they would never think of trading. Per- 
haps the American loyalist might do his ruler true service 
and safeguard her from selfishness by an occasional and quite 
limited assertion of the rights of the man. It remains, how- 
ever, that it must be good for a strong and restless people to be 
possessed with noble ideas of woman, and from the poorest to 
the highest man to be engaged and sworn to her service. The 
woman cult in the States is in itself a civilization, and next 
door to a religion." 

In speaking of the liberty which American women enjoy 
Max O'Rell says : " It is the respect that woman inspires in 
American men which allows the young girl to go about with 
such freedom and to ' queen it ' all through the States. Jona- 
than might give more than one lesson in this stage to the men 
of the * old world,' even to the Frenchman who, in the matter 
of politeness, lives a good deal on the reputation of his ances- 
tors. Jonathan's respect for women is disinterested, purely 
platonic. In France this respect takes the form of politeness 
wliich verges on gallantry, and is often not disinterested. The 
Frenchman will always stand back to let a lady pass, but he 
will profit by the occasion to take a good look at her. The 
American, in a similar circumstance, will respectfully lower 
his eyes. In trains where seats are constructed to hold two 
persons, you will see an American seek a place from one end 
of the train to the other before he will go and seat himself by 
the side of a girl; and he will only do so when there is no help 
for it. I have many times noticed men standing up in the local 
trains rather than run the risk of incommoding a young girl 
by sharing her seat with her." 



568 • THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

Americans do not nowadays, as a rule, plume themselves 
upon their hospitality, but Max 0'E.ell says that every visitor 
of the States agrees with his neighbor — however he may differ 
about other things — that the American has revived the ancient 
Eastern idea of hospitality and acclimatized it in the West. 
''After a journey in the New World, one returns home con- 
vinced that we do not know how hospitality spells in Europe, 
and smitten to the heart with repentance. When a stranger 
comes to us with a letter, we receive him with calm civility, 
hope tliat he has had a good voyage, inquire what he wishes to 
see in our country, map out his route for him, ask him to a 
meal, and let him go with a modest disclaimer that he has 
given us any trouble. If one of us goes over to America, not 
knowing half a dozen people in the whole continent, letters of 
hospitality arrive before you start, they are brought on board 
your steamer with the pilot, they are delivered on the landing- 
stage, they are lying on the table at your rooms, and they all 
come to the same thing — that you will stay in a hotel at your 
peril, and that you and your belongings — it is hoped two boys 
may be with you as well as your wife — must at once come to 
the writer's house. If you have an iron will and a profound 
conviction that your arrangements prevent your being a proper 
guest — for a guest has his duties as well as a host — you may 
deny yourself tlie pleasure of private hospitality, but you will 
have to fight your way, so to sa}^, to the hotel. And if you are 
a guest, you will be received at the station— we allow visitors to 
make their own way to our houses — and welcomed by the 
whole family, as if you were of the same blood, or at least 
friends of twenty years' standing ; and you will be driven over 
the whole district or city, and your host wall be at your dis- 
posal as if he had nothing to do — yet judges, university men, 



AMERICANS THROUGH FOREIGN EYES. 569 

merchants, editors, have some engagements — and you will 
depart laden with roses and good will. 

" One is not quite sure whether to admire most of all 
tlie grace or tact or spontaneity or completeness of hospitality 
among our kinsfolk ; but that for which one is most grateful, and 
which counts dearest, is the genuine kindness. The Americans 
are kind people, and they are not ashamed to allow it to be 
seen." 

Travelers agree that if the American is anything he is a 
patriot. They do not always like the quality of his patriotism, 
but they never deny that he is patriotic. " The Englishmen," 
says Maclaren, " with their dislike of disjDlay and their insular 
reserve, may make merry over Americans carrying tiny flags 
about their person, and jDroducing them on moving occasions, 
such as entering New York harbor, and may sneer at the 
custom, to my mind most useful and becoming, of hoisting the 
stars and stripes on the public schools every morning when the 
scholars assemble. Many Americans would themselves con- 
sider that the star-spangled banner is perhaps too much in 
evidence in speeches and in the national feeling, and might 
even envy those ancient j^eople who are so sure of themselves 
that tliey do not need to protest in public, but Avho carry their 
flag in their heart, and cannot imagine that it would be for- 
gotten. Be it remembered, however, that it is a gigantic and 
critical effort to receive so many foreigners with old tradi- 
tions into a nation's midst, and that it is of vital imjDortance to 
create and even inflame the spirit of patriotism, that in its heat 
— with some blaze and smoke, if you please, you superfine 
people on both sides — the various elements may be welded into 
a national unity. With vast distances, different interests, dis- 
cordant elements, without a court, without pageantry, without 



570 TEE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

long traditions, a nation needs some symbol which may be 
everywhere displayed, and round which these scattered, diverse, 
often antipathetic masses can rally, and it has been found in 
the flag, where every State has its star and all form one con- 
stellation. One also is reminded very forcibly in the country 
of what he has before learned, that American patriotism is 
something more than the waving of a flag and eloquent words." 

It has grown to be the fashion in late years for Eurojoeans 
to praise the heroism of Americans. All the world to-day 
watches the American soldier with admiration ; but heroism in 
America is not confined to those who bear arms : it is as widely 
distributed as the life of the American people. Our firemen 
lead the world in deeds of bravery, and the record of our life- 
saving stations is almost without a parallel. In battle the 
heroism of the men occupied at the rear or below deck is as 
great as that of the men at the front. The editor of the Toledo 
Blade has told a story of the late Spanish- American war which 
strikingly illustrates this point : 

" The duty of the boilermakers on warships is one of the 
most dangerous nature. In action, between actions, and out of 
action the repairs that they are called upon at a moment's notice 
to effect are sufficient to send a chill of fear through the hearts 
of most men. They will creep right inside a boiler or furnace 
which has but a few moments before been full of boiling liquid 
or red-hot coals. They will screw up nuts and fasten bolts or 
repair leaking pipes or joints in places that other men would 
consider impossible to approach. While the ship's big guns" 
are making the vessel tremble and the enemy's shells are burst- 
ing in every direction these men, with positively reckless fear- 
lessness, will venture down in the bowels of the fighting ship, 
amid roaring machinery, hissing steam and flaming fires, to 



AMERICANS THROUGH FOREIGN EYES. 571 

rectify an accident which, unrepaired, might send the shi23 and 
all her human freight to the bottom more surely and more 
quickly than shell or shot from the best gun of the enemy. 
These men are heroes. Most people in the United States will 
remember that when the Bancroft went to work to batter the 
walls of San Juan for some reason she had to slip out of action, 
and her place was taken by the little gunboat Castine, which 
without delay opened her batteries upon the fort. 

" Very few people, even on the vessel herself, knew what 
a close shave she and her crew had of paying a jiermanent visit 
to the dreaded haven of Davy Jones. 

" The Castine carried on board three of these boilermakers 
already referred to — Fish, another, and one Huntley, of Nor- 
folk, Va. The Castine went iuto action under full steam, her 
triple screws revolving at the fullest speed her 2,199 horse- 
power could make them spin, and her battery of eight guns 
started her quivering with excitement and the fierce delight of 
battle. The furnaces were heated almost to white heat, and 
the forced draught was urging the flames to greater heat, the 
boiling water to the higher production of steam, the engines to 
increasing revolutions. Suddenly, without expectation, with- 
out warning, far down in the furnace hole, unheard by officer 
or man amid the din of battle, the thundering reverberations 
of exploding gunpowder, there arose a fierce hissing noise 
right inside one of the furnaces, and those who heard it 
trembled as no guns or shot or shell had power to make them 
tremble. 

" A socket bolt in the back connection at the very farthest 
interior extremity of the furnace had become loose. A leak 
had been sprung ! The steam was pouring in upon the fire, 
threatening in a few moments to put it out and stop the progress 



572 THE BEIQHT SIDE OF HUMANITY. 

of the vessel, if it did not have the more awful effect of causing 
a terrible explosion and annihilation ! 

"The faces of the men below, at that moment of terrible 
suspense, blanched beneath the grime that covered them. 
None knew what to do save to wait the awful coming of the 
shock they knew must come. 

"None ! Nay, but there was one ! The first to pull him- 
self together, the first to whom returned the fear-driven senses, 
was Boilermaker Huntley. His name does not appear on 'the 
navy list. Even his first name was unknown to his confrere, 
Fish — only Boilermaker Huntley, of Norfolk, Va. But that 
is enough, and his deed should be sufficient to find for him a 
niche in the annals of fame whenever and wherever the story 
of the United States and her navy is told. 

"One instant of startled horror; then, without hesitation, 
without trepidation, with stern-set jaws, and fierce, devoted 
determination on every line of face and form — 

" ' Turn off the forced draught ! ' he cried. 

" ' Goodness, Huntley, what are you going to do ? ' 

" ' Bank the fire. Quick ! ' 

" ' It's certain death ! ' 

"'For one — unless for all! Turn off the draught; bank 
the fire!' 

" The orders were carried out feverishly. 

"'Now, a plank!' 

" And before they could stop him this hero nad flung the 
plank into the furnace, right on top of the black coal with 
which it was banked, and himself climbed and crawled over 
the raging mass, far back to where the steam was rushing like 
some hissing devil from the loosened socket. 

" For three minutes he remained inside that fearful place, 



AMERICANS THROUGH FOREIGN EYES. 573 

and then the work was done — the ship was saved — and his 
friends drew him out of the door. The force draught went 
to ist work again, and in an instant the furnace was once more 
raging. 

" But what of Huntley ! Scorched, scalded, insensible, 
well-nigh dead, he lay upon the iron floor of the furnace-room, 
while around him stood his mates dousing him with water and 
using every known means for his resuscitation. He did not 
die. And when once more he opened his eyes, and was able 
to be carefully lifted into daylight, there arose such cheers 
from the throats of those dirty, grimy mates as never greeted 
taking of city or sinking of fleet. 

"The story is briefly chronicled in the log of the Castine, 
and Huntley simply claims that he 'did his duty.' But 
while the United States remains a nation, so long as the banner 
bearing the silver stars on the field of blue above alternate 
strij^es of red and white remains the symbol of purity, bravery, 
and patriotism to American hearts the world over, so long when 
her heroes are spoken of one name should never be omitted — 
that of Boilermaker Huntley, of Norfolk, Va," 



APPENDIX. 



Appendix. 



THE BRIGHT SIDE OF HUMANITY IN LITERATURE. 

While the design of this volume is probably new, the 
sentiments which inspired it, and which have been in some 
fashion woven into its pages, are as old and as widespread as 
our literature, as the following quotations will show : 

Men's evil manners live in brass ; their virtues we write in water. — Shake- 
speare. 

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he 
take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all 
mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and 
extravagant. — Seneca. 

If thou wouldst be borne with, bear with others. — Fuller. 

Every thing hath two handles : the one soft and manageable, the other such 
as will not endure to be touched. If then your brother do you an injury, do not 
take it l)y the hot and hard handle, by representing to yourself all the aggravat- 
ing circumstances of the fact ; but look rather on the soft side, and extenuate it 
as much as is possible by considering the nearness of the relation, and the long 
friendship and familiarity between you — obligations to kindness which a single 
provocation ought not to dissolve. And thus you will take the accident by its 
manageable handle. — Ejnctetus. 

I have known persons without a friend — never anyone without some 
virtue. — Hazlltt. 

T'se every man after his dessert, and who shall scape whipping ? — Shake- 
speare. 

The world will operate differently according to our temper. Almost every- 
body, in the sanguine season of youth, looks in the world for more perfection than 
30 ("^70) 



580 APPENDIX. 

lie is likely to find. But ■ a good-tempered man — that is to say, a man of a wise 
constitution — will be pleased in the midst of his disappointment to find that, if 
the virtues of men are below his wish and calculation, their faults have beneficial 
eifects ; whereas the ill-tempered man, grows peevish at finding, what he will as 
certainly find, the ill consequence attending the most undoubted virtues. I be- 
lieve we shall do everything something the better for putting ourselves in as good 
humor as possible when we set about it. — Burke. 

There was never any heart truly great and generous that was not also tender 
and compassionate : it is this noble quality that makes all men to be of one kind ; 
for every man would be a distinct species to himself were there no sympathy 
among individuals. — South. 

Every human soul has the germ of some flowers within ; and they would 
open if they could only find sunshine and free air to expand in. I always told 
you that not having enough of sunshine was what ailed the world. Make people 
happy, and there will not be half the quarrelling, or a tenth of the wickedness 
there \&.—Mrs. L. 31. Child. 

Ye men of gloom and austerity, who paint the face of Infinite Benevolence 
with an eternal frown, read in the everlasting Book, wide open to your view, the 
lesson it would teach. Its pictures are not in black and sombre hues, but bright" 
and glowing tints ; its music — save when ye drown it — is not in sighs and groans, 
but songs and cheerful sounds. Listen to the millic«n voices in the summer air, 
and find one dismal as your own. Remember, if ye can, the sense of hope and 
pleasure which every glad return of day awakens in the breast of all your kind 
who have not changed their nature ; and learn some wisdom even from the 
witless, when their hearts are filled up, they know not why, by all the mirth and 
happiness it brings. — Dickens. 

Human nature (as I have observed in a former work) is always and every- 
Avhere, in the most important points, substantially the same ; circumstantially and 
externally, men's manners and conduct are infinitely various in various times and 
regions. If the former were not true — if it were not for this fundamental agree- 
ment — history could furnish no instruction ; if the latter were not true — if there 
were not these apparent and circumstantial differences — hardly any one could fail 
to profit by that instruction. For few are so dull as not to learn something from 
the records of past experience in cases precisely similar to their own. — Whately. 

Be deaf unto the suggestions of tale-bearers, calumniators, pick-thank or 
malevolent delators, who, while quiet men sleep, sowing the tares of discord and 
division, distract the tranquillity of charity and all friendly society. These are 
the tongues that set the world on fire, cankers of reputation, anr" like that of 
Jonah's gourd, wither a good name in a night. — Sir T. Browne. 



APPENDIX 581 

Gently to hear, kindly to judge. — Sluikespeare. 

^lore helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will 
not forsake others. — George Eliot. 

A cruel story runs on wheels, and eveiy hand oils the wheels as they run. — 
On Ida. 

The best self- forgetfuln ess is to look at the things of the world with atten- 
tion and love ; for, really, attention is fraught with love, and perhaps that which 
is most unselfish. — Auerhach. 

Of all the centuries this is the best century, and of all the decades of the 
century this is the best decade, and of all the years of the decade this is the best 
year, and of all the months of the year this is the best month, and of all the days 
of the month this is the best day. — IVdmage. 

. Humility is the true proof of Christian virtues ; without it we retain all our 
faults, and they are only covered by pride to hide them from others, and often 
from ourselves. — La Rochefoucauld. 

Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. — Shakes^peare. 

It is a certain sign of an ill heart to be inclined to defamation. They who 
are harmless and innocent can have no gratification that way ; but it ever rises 
from a neglect of what is laudable in a man's self, and an impatience of seeing it 
in another. — Sir R. Steele. 

We should not arrogantly pride ourselves upon our virtues and knowledge, 
nor condemn the errors and weakness of others, since they may depend upon 
causes which we can neither produce nor easily counteract. No one, judging 
from his own feelings and powers, can be aware of the kind or degree of tempta- 
tion or terror, or the seeming incapacity to resist them, which may induce others 
to deviate. — Dr. J. Ahernethy. 

One may be right, another mistaken ; but if I have more strength than my 
brother, it shall be employed to support, not to oppress, his weakness ; if I have 
more light, it shall be used to guide, not to dazzle him. — Burhe. 

Grod, who is the Father of spirits, is the most tolerant man. Man, wh(j is 
the first of animals, is the most oppressive — yet he calls himself the shadow of 
the Almighty. — W. Jerdan. 

Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a heaven and hell a fable. — • 
Colt on. 



582 APPENDIX. 

Some readily find out that where there is distress there is vice, and easily 
discover the crime of feeding the lazy or encouraging the dissolute. — Johnson. 

The right Christian mind will find his own image wherever it exists ; it will 
seek for what it loves, and draw it out of all dens and caves, and it will believe in 
its being often when it cannot see it, and always turn away its eyes from behold- 
ing vanity ; and so it will lie lovingly over all the faults and rough places of the 
human heart, as the snow from heaven does over the hard and black and broken 
mountain rocks, following their forms truly, and yet catching light for them to 
make them fair, and that must be a steep and unkindly crag indeed which it 
cannot cover. — Ruskin. 

Charity, in whatever guise she appears, is the best-natured and the best- 
complexioned thing in the world. — Frederick Sminders. 

Let the greatest part of the news thou hearest be the least part of what 
thou believest, lest the greater part of what thou believest be the least part of 
what is true. Where lies are easily admitted the father of lies will not easily be 
excluded. — Quarles. 

The great duty of Grod's children is to love one another. This duty on 
earth takes the name and the form of the law of humanity. We are to recog- 
nize all men as brethren, no matter where born, or under what sky, or institution 
or religion they may live. Every man belongs to the race and owes a duty to 
mankind. Every nation belongs to the family of nations and is to desire the 
good of all. Nations are to love one another. . . . Men cannot vote this 
out of the universal acclamation. . . . Men cannot, by combining them- 
selves into narrower or larger societies, sever the sacred, blessed bond which 
joins them to their kind. . . . The law of humanity must reign over the 
assertion of all human rights. — William Ellery Channing. 

We should miss a great deal that is valuable in human nature if we confined 
our attention exclusively to important personages. — Ilamerton. 

True humility is contentment. — Mrs. Humphrey Ward. 

The charity that thinketh no evil trusts in God and trusts in men. — J. G. 
Holland. 

The heart is always hungry. No man lives happily alone. The wisest and 
the best is wiser and better for the friends he has. — Rosioell D. Hitchcock. 

A critic should be a pair of snuflPers. He is oftener an extinguisher, and 
not seldom a thief. — Hare. 



APPENDIX. 583 

Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation. — Henry Ward BeecJier. 

The quality of mercy is not strain'd : 

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 

Upon the place beneath : it is twice bless'd — 

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes : 

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest : it becomes 

The throned monarch better than his crown ; 

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 

The attribute to awe and majesty, 

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ; 

But mercy is above this scepter'd sway, 

It is. an attribute to God himself; 

And earthly power doth then show likest God's 

When mercy seasons Justice. 

Consider this — 
That, in the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy ; 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy. 

— Shakespeare . 

The cynic is one who never sees a good quaUty in a man, and never fails to 
see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and Wind to light, 
mousing for vermin and never seeing noble game. — -Henri/ Ward Beecher. 

And therein were a thousand Tongs empight 

Of sundry kindes and sundry quality ; 
Some where of Dogs, that barked day and night, 

And some of Cats, that wrawling still did cry, 
And some of Beares, that groynd continually. 

And some of Tygres, that did .seem to gcen. 
And snar at all that ever passed by : 

But most of them were tongues of Mortall Men, 

Which spake reprochfully, not caring where nor when. 

— Spenser. 

It is well that there is no one without a fault, for he would not have a 
friend in the world. He would seem to belong to a different species. — Hazlitt. 

When will talkers refrain from evil-speaking ? 
When listeners refrain from evU-hearing. 

— Hare. 



584 APPENDIX. 

To love the piiblic, to study universal good, and to promote the interest of 
the whole w^orld, as far as lies within our power, is the height of goodness, and 
makes that temper which we call divine. — Shafteshury. 

The man that dares traduce because he can 
With safety to himself is not a man. 

— Cowper. 

I will chide no breather in the world but myself, against whom I know 
most faults. — ^Shakespeare. 

The happiness of mankind is the end of virtue, and truth is the knowledge 
of the means, which he will never seriously attempt to discover who has not 
habitually interested himself in the welfare of others. — Coleridge. 

How would you be 
If He, which is the top of judgment, should 
But judge you as you are ? Oh, think on that, 
And mercy then will breathe within your lips, 
Like man new made. 

— ShaJcespeare. 

The world is very much what we make it. Show me the color of a man's 
spectacles, and I will tell you what kind of a world it is. Blue spectacles, a blue 
world. Green spectacles, a green world. Yellow spectacles, a jaundiced world. 
Transparent spectacles, the beautiful world that God made it. The first thing is 
to have the heart right, the second is to have the liver right. My friend has for 
many years been troubled with indigestion. Desirous of cheering him up, I 
looked out of the window and said: "That snow is beautiful." He answered: 
" It will turn to slush and sleet." I said : " The human body is a fine piece of 
mechanism." He answered : " Warts, croup, marasmus, corns, bunions, gout and 
indigestion." I hoisted a window and caught one of the flying snowflakes and 
put it under a microscope, and said : "I see God walking in this palace, the 
jewels of heaven are in these vases ; I see the couriers of celestial dominion 
pawing those crystal pavements." He turned up his coat collar and said : " I 
am in a perfect chill ; please to put down that window." I grew vehement and 
said : " You must have noticed that this is a splendid world ; all the looms of 
heaven must have been at work on the wins; of a kino-fisher. What morning; 
was it that a warble slipped heaven and this oriole plucked it ? What grotesque 
rock of the mountain hath set the streams into roystering laughter ? What harp 
of heaven gives the pitch to the music of the south wind ? There is enough 
wisdom to confound the earth and the heavens in the structure of one cricket. 
Even the weeds of the field are dressed like the daughters of God, and men may 



APPENDIX. 585 

sneer at their commonness, but have no capacity to fathom, or climb, or compass 
the infinity of beauty in a dandelion or the blossom of a potato top. At the foot 
of this tuberose angelic equipage must halt, and its cohort, climbing the winding 
stair of leaf, look oif upon the kingdoms of floral wonder and the glory of them. 
On a summer night I have seen the stars of heaven and the dews of earth 
married, the grass-blades holding up their fingers for the setting of the weddino" 
signet, while voices from above said : ' With this ring I thee endow with all my 
light and love, and splendor celestial.' At sunset I have seen the flaming chariots 
of God drive down into Lake Winipiseogee, the panting nostrils stirring the 
water and the spray-like dust tossed from the gHttering wheels." " Bosh ! " 
cried my invalid friend, '■ I never saw anything like that in all my life." So that, 
handing him over a bottle of Hoofland's Dyspeptic Bitters, I retired to my room 
to consider the value of a cheerful spirit. — Tahnage. 

True love is the parent of a noble humility. — William Ellery Channing. 

In Faith and Hope the world will disagree, 
But all mankind's concern is Charity ; 
All must be false that thwart this one great end, 
And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend. 

— Pope. 

I earn that I eat, get that I wear ; owe no man hate, envy no man's happi- 
ness; glad of other men's good, content with my harm. — Shakespeare. 

The drying up a single tear has more 

Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore. 

— Byron. 

It is only necessary to grow old to become more indulgent. I see no fault 
committed that I have not committed myself — Goethe. 

A good man is kinder to his enemy than bad men are to their friends. — 
Bishoj) Hall. 

Some bad people would be less dangerous if they had not some goodness. — 
La Rochefoucauld. 

There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out. 

— ShaliCfipeare. 

The malcontent is neither well, full nor fasting ; and though he abound 
with complaints, yet nothing dislikes him but the ]n-esent ; for what he condemns 
while it was, once passed, he magnifies and strives to recall it out of the jaws of 



586 APPENDIX. 

time. What he hath he seeth not, his eyes are so taken up with what he wants • 
and what he sees he careth not for, because he cares so much for that which is 
not. — Bishop Hall. 

I pity the man who can travel from Dan to Beersheba and cry, 'Tis all 
barren. — Laurence Sterne. 

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods ? 
Draw near them then in being merciful : 
Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. 

— Shakespeare. 

Thou know'st but little 
If thou dost think true Virtue is confin'd 
To climes or systems ; no, it flows spontaneous, 
Like life's warm stream throughout the whole creation, 
And beats the pulse of ev'ry healthful heart. 

— Miller. 

Who does the best his circumstance allows 
Does well, acts nobly ; angels could no more. 

— Young. 

Thou must content thyself to see the world so imperfect as it is. Thou 
wilt never have any quiet if thou vexest thyself, because thou canst not bring 
mankind to that exact notion of things and rule of life which thou hast formed 
in thy own mind. — Fuller. 

Heigh-ho ! daisies and buttercups, 

Fair young daffodils, stately and tall — 
A sunshiny world, full of laughter and leisure, 

And fresh hearts unconscious of sorrow and thrall ! 
Send down on their pleasure smiles passing its measure, 

God that is over us all ! 

— -Jean Ingelow. 

There is no nation, though plunged into never such gross idolatry, but has 
some awful sense of a Deity, and a persuasion of a state of retribution after this 
life. — South. 

The whole world calls for new work and nobleness. Subdue mutiny, dis- 
coi'd, widespread despair, by manfulness, justice, mercy and wisdom. Chaos is 
dark, deep as hell : let light be, and there is indeed a green, flowery world. Oh, 
it is great, and there is no other greatness ! To make some nook of God's crea- 



APPENDIX. 587 

tion a little fruitfuUer, better, more worthy of God ; to make some human hearts 
a little wiser, manfuUer, happier, more blessed, less accursed ! It is work for a 
God ! Sooty hell of mutiny, and savagery, and despair, can, by man's energy, be 
made a kind of heaven ; cleared of its soot, of its mutiny, of its need to mutiny ; 
the everlasting arch of heaven's azure overspanning it too, and its cunning mech- 
anisms and tall chimney-steeples as a birth of heaven ; God and all men looking 
on it well pleased. — Carlyle. 

Men sunk into the greatest darkness imaginable retain some sense and awe 
of a Deity. — Tillotson. 

It would be well if, not only in looking at our own condition, but at other 
people, we set out the sparkle instead of the gloom. With five hundred faults 
of our own, we ought to let somebody else at least have one. When there is 
such excellent hunting on our own ground, let us not with rifle and greyhound- 
pack spend all our time in scouring our neighbors' lowlands. I am afraid the im- 
perfections of other people will kill us yet. All the vessels on the sea seem to 
be in bad trim except our schooner. A person full of faults is most merciless in 
his criticisms of the faults of others. How much better, like the sun, to find 
light wherever we look, letting people have their idiosyncrasies and every one 
work in his own way. — Tahnage. 

In this world, with its wild, whirling eddies and mad foam oceans, where men 
and nations perish as if without law, and judgment for an unjust thing is sternly 
delayed, dost thou think that there is therefore no justice? It is what the fool 
hath said in his heart. It is what the wise in all times were wise because they 
denied and knew forever not to be. I tell thee again, there is nothing else but 
justice. One strong thing I find here below: the just thing, the true thing. — 
Thomas Carlyle. 

yet we trust that somehow good 
Will be the final goal of ill. 

— Tennyson. 

Speaking generally, it seems to me to be an aphorism that the best form of 
culture must always be the broadest form of culture, the culture which does not 
confine itself to this or that narrow groove or clique, but leads to a wide knowl- 
edge of and sympathy with all aspects of life. 

The ideal state of culture would be one in which the mind would embrace 
the whole universe, as far as we are capable of understanding it, and would 
respond to every change, be it in science, in art, in politics, or any other depart- 
ment of human knowledge or experience. 

Life is too short, no doubt, to enable a man to get in contact at all points 
with the facts of existence ; but there lies the ideal, and the greater the catho- 
licity of sympathy the higher the culture. — A Conan Doyle. 



588 APPENDIX. 

Get into the sunshine. Take on brightness. Consider what is good and 
oeautiful, and ask God to help ' you to assimilate these qualities into your own 
unhappy nature. — Anon. 

The little I have seen in the world teaches me to look upon the errors of 
others in sorrow, not in anger. When I take the history of one poor heart that 
has sinned and suffered, and represent to myself the struggles. and temptations it 
has passed through, the brief pulsation of joy, the feverish inquietude of friends, 
I would fain leave the erring soul of my fellow-man with Him from whose hand it 
came. — Anon. 

The perfect man will be : 

1. A perfect animal. 

2. A trained, clear-seeing, unbiased intellect, whose one thirst is for truth. 

3. A taste that sees and appreciates all beauty. 

4. A heart that loves all lovely things. 

5. A sympathetic beneficence that would have all men lifted to the highest. 

6. A soul or spirit that recognizes kinship with the Eternal Spirit and ever 
aspires toward a fuller spiritual life. 

These all blended in one being, not that he has these things, but is these. — 
Rev. M. T. Savage. 

Consider your blessings more than your troubles ; look on the bright side of 
life rather than on the dark side ; see your neighbor's virtues rather than his 
failings ; speak cheerfully, not despondingly : give thanks instead of grumbling. 
— Anon. 

Sweetness is the condition of preservation. Whatever is naturally sweet 
must be kept sweet or become worthless. Fruit is good for nothing after it 
sours. A man loses his attractions when he sours on the world, and his best 
friends included. — Anon. 

What is the best ideal of culture? Freedom from all prejudices and all 
dogmas. 

What qualities of mind, heart, energy, or character should be cultivated for 
the higher development of man ? Catholicity — the quality of judging character 
at the root, not by the branches. — Robert Buchanan. 

Thinking well of a person is one of the best aids that can be given to lead 
him on toward well-doing. — Anon. 

Narrow-minded men and women, and the world is full of them, will only 
give you distorted ideas of life — ideas that will change the sunniest and most 
healthful disposition into one morose, churlish and ill-natured. — Anon. 



APPENDIX. 589 

When we come to see how deeply God loves men, all men, we cannot help 
loving them also, though they dwell at the other end of the earth, or in the 
lowest depths of degradation, — Amos R. Welk. 

We must not spend all our lives in cleaning our windows, but in sunning 
ourselves in God's blessed light. That light will soon show us what still needs 
to be cleansed, and will enable us to cleanse it with unerring accuracy. — F. B. 
Meyer. 

We look at our neighbor's errors with a microscope, and at our own through 
the wrong end of a telescope. We have two sets of weights and measures — 
one for home use and the other for foreign. Every vice has two names, and we 
call it by the flattering and minimizing one when we commit it, and by the ugly 
one when our neighbor does it. Everybody can see the hump on his friend's 
shoulders, but it takes some effort to see our own. — Dr. Maclaren. 

Some murmur when their sky is clear 

And wholly bright to view 
If one small speck of dark appear 

In their great heaven of blue; 
And some with thankful love are filled 

If but one streak of light. 
One ray of God's mercy, gild 

The darkness of their night. 

In palaces are hearts that ask. 

In discontent and pride, 
Why life is such a dreary task, 

And all good things denied ; 
And hearts in poorest huts admire 

How love has in their aid 
(Love that not ever seems to tire) 

Such rich provision made. 

— Ricliard Chenevix Trench. 

Great is the religion of power, but greater is the religion of love ; great is 
the religion of implacable justice, but greater is the religion of pardoning mercy. 
— Castelar. 

Remember that it is indeed the wisest and the happiest man who, by constant 
attention of thought, discovers the greatest opportunity of doing good, and with 
ardent and animated resolution breaks through every opposition that he may im- 
prove these opportunities. — Doddridge. 



590 APPENDIX. 

Get into the habit of looking for the silver lining of the cloud, and, when 
you have found it, continue to look at it, rather than at the leaden gray in the 
middle. It will help you over many hard places.—^. A. WUlitts. 

He who diffuses the most happiness and mitigates the most distress within 
his own circle is undoubtedly the best friend to his country and the world, since 
nothing more is necessary than for all men to imitate his conduct, to make the 
greatest part of the misery of the world cease in a moment. While the passion, 
then, of some is to shine, of some to govern, and of others to accumulate, let 
one great passion alone influence our breasts — the passion which reason ratifies, 
which conscience approves, which Heaven inspires — that of being and doing 
good. — Robert Hall. 

There's no dearth of kindness 

In this world of ours ; 
Only in our blindness 

We gather thorns for flowers ! 
Outward, we are spurning — 

Trampling one another ! 
While we are inly yearning 

At the name of " brother ! " 

There's no dearth of kindness 

Or love among mankind, 
But in darkling loneness 

Hooded hearts grow blind ! 
Full of kindness tingling. 

Soul is shut from soul, 
When they might be mingling 

In one kindred whole ! 

There's no dearth of kindness, 

Though it be unspoken, 
From the heart it buildeth 

Rainbow-smiles in token — 
That there be none so lowly 

But have some angel-touch : 
Yet, nursing loves unholy, 

We live for self too much ! 

As the wild-rose bloweth, 

As runs the happy river, 
Kindness freely floweth 

In the heart forever. 



APPENDIX. 691 

But if men will hanker 

Ever for golden dust, 
Kingliest hearts will canker, 

Brightest spirits rust. 

There's no dearth of kindness 

In this world of ours ; 
Only in our blindness 

We gather thorns for flowers ! 
Oh, cherish God's best giving, 

Falling from above ! 
Life were not worth living 

Were it not for love. 

— Gerald Massey. 

Cynicism is intellectual dandyism without the coxcomb's feathers ; and 'it 
seems to me that cynics are only happy in making the world as barren to othei'S 
as they have made it for themselves. — Meredith. 

It is a part of my religion to look well after the cheerfulness of life and let 
the dismals shift for themselves. — Louisa 31. Alcott. 

He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that under- 
values others will oppress them. — Johnson. 

Men of culture are the true apostles of equality. — Mathew Arnold. 

That is true cultivation which gives us sympathy with every form of human 
life, and enables us to work most successfully for its advancement. — Henry 
Ward Beecher. 

The only worthy end of all learning, of all science, of all life, in fact, is that 
human beings should love one another better. Culture merely for culture's sake 
can never be anything but a sapless root, capable of producing at best a 
shrivelled branch. — John Walter Cross. 

Mankind are so ready to bestow their admiration on the. dead, because the 
latter do not hear it, or because it gives no pleasure to the objects of it. Even 
fame is the offspring of envy. — Hazlitt. 

Human nature is the same the world over. There is a fellowship of kin- 
dred minds among all men, and because of this kinship tie we can get very close 
to each other. " Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that 
weep." There is an astonishing unity of experience among all hearts. Not a 



692 APPENDIX. 

single trial or temptation comes to us but has come to others. If we are weak, 
otheis have been weak before us ; if we are poor, others have tasted of poverty ; 
if our path is filled with sorrow, the paths of others before us were filled with 
sorrows more bitter ; if we are alone in the world, others have been alone amid 
greater difficulties ; if we are oppressed, others have been oppressed with even 
sadder oppressions. Then, when my brother comes to me and tells me that 
troubles dark, sad, and heartrending have befallen him, can I not enter into his 
troubles? Have I not had troubles in my own experience ? Can I not tendeily 
shed a tear of sympathy and bestow some kind word upon him ? Can I not 
firmly press his hand, if my heart is too full for utterance, and thus show that 
there is a tender spot in my nature for him ? — J. E. Alexander. 

To forgive a fault in another is more sublime than to be faultless one's self, 
— George Eliot. 

Humanity is about the same the world over ; and while the earth has its 
uniformity, with slight differences in mountain and plain, so its products are very 
nearly alike. — Dorin Piatt. 

If we cannot love the unlovely there is no God, and all our Christian faith 
is a cruel. Knocking delusion. We are not made for law, but for love. No man 
who is indifferent to his neighbor has the love of Grod in his heart. — B. F. Mills. 

0, rich and various man ! thou palace of sight and sound, carrying in thy 
senses the morning and the night and the unfathomable galaxy ; in thy brain 
the geometry of the city of Grod ; in thy heart the power of love and the realms 
of right and wrong. An individual man is a fruit which it cost all the forego- 
ing ages to form and ripen. He is strong not to do, but to live ; not in his arms,, 
but in his heart; not as an agent, but as a fact. — Er)ierson. 

What tho' on hamely fare we dine. 

Wear hoddin-grey, and a' that ? 
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine — 

A man's a man for a' that. 
For a' that, and a' that. 

Their tinsel show, and a' that ; 
The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor, 

Is king o' men for a' that. 

Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord, 

Wha struts and stares and a' that ; 
Tho' hundreds worship at his word, 

He's but a coof for a' that ; 



APPENDIX. 593 

For a' that, and a' that, 

His ribband, star, and a' that ; 
The man of independent mind. 

He looks and laughs at a' that. 

A prince can mak' a belted knight, 

A marquis, duke, and a' that ; 
But an honest man's aboou his might, 

Gude faith, he mauna fa' that! 
For a' that, and a' that, 

Their dignities and a' that; 
The pith o' sense and pride o' worth 

Are higher rank than a' that. 

Then let us pray that come it may, 

As come it will for a' that. 
That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, 

May bear the gree and a' that ; 
For a' that, and a' that. 
That man to man, the world o er, ' 

Shall brothers be for a' that ! 

— Robert Burns. 

Look upon the bright side of your condition ; then your discontents 'will 
disperse. Pore not upon your losses, but recount your mercies. — Watson. 

Not all the saints are canonized ; 

There's lots of them close by ; 
There's some of them in my own ward, 

Some in my family ; 
They're thick here in my neighborhood, 

They throng here in my street ; 
My sidewalk has been badly worn 

By their promiscuous feet. 

Not all the heroes of the world 

Are apothesized : 
Their names make our directories 

Of very ample size. 
And almost every family 

Whose number is complete. 
Has one or more about the board 

When they sit down to eat. 



594 APPENDIX. 

Cultivate the habit of always seeing the best in people, and, more than that, 
of drawing forth whatever is the best in them. — Cuyler. 

Not all the martyrs of the world 

Are in the Martyrology ; 
Not all their tribe became extinct 

In some remote chronology. 
Why weep for saints long dead and gone ? 

There's plenty still to meet ; 
Put on your wraps and f*"ll upon 

The saints upon your street. 

And Fox's martyrs were strong souls, 

But still their likes remain ; 
There's good old Mother Haggerty, 

And there is sweet Aunt Jane. 
You know them just as well as I, 

Since they're a numerous brood, 
For they are with you all, and live, 

In every neighborhood. 

— Anon. 

We should esteem a person according to his actions, not his nationality. — 

Varenes. 

The happiest heart that ever beat 

Was in some quiet breast 
That found the common daylight sweet, 
And left to Heaven the rest. 

— J. V. Cheney. 

Cultivate forbearance till your heart yields a fine crop of it. Pray for a 
short memory as to all unkindnesses. — Spurgeon. 

I once met a little fellow on the road carrying a basket of blackberries, and 
said to him : 

" Sammy, where did you get such berries? " 

" Over there, sir, in the briers." 

" Won't your mother be glad to see you come home with a basketful of such 
nice, ripe fruit ? " 

" Yes, sir," said Sammy, " she always seems glad when I show her the ber- 
ries, and I don't tell her anything about the briars in my feet." 

I rode on. But Sammy's remarks had given me a lesson ; and I resolved 
that henceforth in my daily life T would try to think of the berries, and say 
nothins: about the briers. — Anon. 



APPENDIX. 595 

There are nettles everywhere, 

But smooth, green grasses are more common still : 

The blue heaven is larger than the cloud. 

— Mrs. Broivning. 

There is a tender spot in the hardest heart. A widow, one bitter, cold night, 
was nursing her three-year-old girl, who had been seriously ill for several days. 
The mother's heart was sad, and brain and body were weary with the long vigil. 
The clock had . struck the hour of midnight, the wind was shaking every 
window and howling round the street corners, and the snow was being driven 
pitilessly hither and thither. The Httle child had dropped into a fitful sleep, and 
the wearied mother rested, looking into the fire with a sense of loneliness. The 
other members of the household had long since been asleep, leaving the patient 
mother alone on her night watch. 

With a lull in the wind and a cessation of the little sufferer's groans, the 
mother heard a suspicious noise in another room. She listened intently, and the 
sounds grew more pronounced. Some one was forcing an entrance into a bureau. 
Trembhng, yet brave at heart, thinking more of her sleeping ' child than she did. 
of her personal danger, she stepped into the hall and walked noiselessly to a room 
in a distant part of the house. The door was partly open and the gas was 
turned up. 

Her heart stood still, for there before her were two burly men, engaged in 
prying open a bureau drawer. One of the burglars, with an oath, presented his 
pistol, and said : 

" Don't speak or move a step, woman ; you received some money a few days 
ago, and we are going to have it.'" 

The woman faltered and then said in a low tone of voice : 

" Don't make any noise, please. The money is in my room, where my child 
is lying sick. Come with me, and you shall have it. But don't frighten my 
child ; it will kill her ! She is very sick ; " and the trembling voice and tear- 
laden eyes were ample proof of her truthfulness. 

" We'll try her, Bill. Go on ahead, woman," said the ruffian with a threat- 
ening gesture. 

Down the hall the three figures walked noiselessly, until the mother's cham- 
ber door was reached. Pushing the door wide open, the mother held up an en- 
treating hand, which gesture said plainer than words, " Don't come into the 
light." Just at this moment a plaintive voice cried out : 

" Mamma ! Where is my mamma ? I want a drink ! " 

" I'm coming, darling. Mamma is here," said the mother, in a cheerful 
voice. 

Then she handed the little child a drink ; bending over her she lulled her to 
rest with a little plaintive song, and the child dropped to sleep. 



596 APPENDIX. 

Then the mother went to the bureau, unlocked it, and drew out a roll of 
money. It was not much, but sufficient for the wants of a month. Again bend- 
ing over the child, to see that she was not disturbed, the mother went out into 
the hall, closing the door behind her. The burglary were not there. She 
stepped hastily down to the hall door. No one was there, but the door was ajar. 
Opening the door, she heard a voice at the gate saying : 

" It's the last time I'm going to do a job of this kind, Bill. It isn't to my 
stomach." 

The mother spoke in a low tone, holding out the money : 
" Here is my money. Thank you for not disturbing my child." 
" Keep it, ma'am. I hope the little kid will get well. Good night, ma'am." 
And the two ruffians, who but a few moments before had robbery and murder 
in their hearts, went away into the night. For a moment, as the mother listened 
to their departing steps, it seemed as if the fierce wind was stilled, and the black 
night lighted up with a strange light. — Anon. 

Charity draws down a blessing on the charitable. — Le Sage. 

Cheerfulness, the character of common hope, is, in strong hope, like glimpses 
■of sunshine on a cloudy day. — Joanna Baillie. 

The most certain sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness. Her state is 
like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene. — 
Montaigne. 

Cheerfulness, or joyousness, is the heaven under which everything but 
poison thrives. — Richter. 

What, indeed, does not that word cheerfulness imply ? It means a con- 
tented spirit, it means a pure heart, it means a kind and loving disposition, it 
means humility and charity, it means a generous appreciation of others, and a 
Jnodest opinion of self. — Thackeray. 

The fact of our deriving constant pleasure from whatever is a type or sem- 
"blance of divine attributes, and from nothing but that which is so, is the most 
glorious of all that can be demonstrated of human nature ; it not only sets a 
great gulf of specific separation between us and the lower animals, but it seems 
a promise of a communion ultimately deep, close and conscious with the Being 
whose darkened manifestations we here feebly and unthinkingly delight in. — 
Rushin. 

True generosity is a duty as indispensably necessary as those imposed upon 
us by law. It is a rule imposed upon us by reason, which should be the sover- 
•ei2;n law of a rational beino; — Goldsmith. 



APPENDIX. 597 

I must confess that there is nothing that more pleases me, in all that I read 
in books, or see among mankind, than such passages as re])resent human nature 
in its proper dignity. As man is a creature made up of different extremes, he 
has something in him very great and very mean. A skillful artist may draw an 
excellent picture of him in either of these views. The finest authors of an- 
tiquity have taken him on the more advantageous side. They cultivate the 
natural grandeur of the soul, raise in her a generous ambition, feed her with 
hopes of immortality and perfection, and do all they can to widen the partition 
between the virtuous and the vicious by making the difference betwixt them as 
great as between gods and brutes. In short, it is impossible to read a page in 
Plato, Tully, and a thousand other ancient moralists, without being a greater and 
a better man for it. On the contrary, I could never read any of our modish 
French authors, or those of our own country who are the imitators and admirers 
of that trifling nation, without being for some time out of humor with myself 
and at everything about me. Their business is to depreciate human nature, 
and consider it under its worst appearances. They give mean interpretations. 
and base motives to the worthiest actions ; they resolve virtue and vice into con- 
stitution. In short, they endeavor to make no distinction between man and man,, 
or between the species of men and that of brutes. As an instance of this kind 
of authors, among masy others, let any one examine the celebrated Rochefou- 
cault, who is the great philosopher for administering of consolation to the idle,, 
the envious and worthless part of mankind. — Addison. 

Human nature appears a very deformed, or a very beautiful, object, accord- 
ing to the different lights in which it is viewed. When we see men of inflamed 
passions, or of wicked designs, tearing one another to pieces by open violence, or 
undermining each other by secret treachery ; when we observe base and narrow 
ends pursued by ignominious and dishonest means ; when we observe men mixed 
in society as if it were for the destruction of it, we are even ashamed of our 
species, and out of humor with our own being. But in another light, when we 
behold them mild, good, and benevolent, full of a generous regard for the public 
prosperity, compassionating each other's distresses, and relieving each other's 
wants, we can hardly beheve they are creatures of the same kind. In this view 
they appear gods to each other, in the exercise of the noblest power, that of 
doing good ; and the greatest compliment we have ever been able to make to our 
own being has been by calling this disposition of mind humanity. We cannot 
but observe a pleasure arising in our own breast upon the seeing or hearing of a 
generous action, even when we are wholly disinterested in it. — Hughes. 

There is nothing which I contemplate with greater pleasure than the dignity 
of human nature, which often shows itself in all conditions of life. For. not- 
withstanding the degeneracy and meanness that is crept into it, there are a thou- 



598 APPENDIX. 

sand occasions in whicli it breaks tliroiigli its original corruption, and shows what 
it once was, and what it will be hereafter. I consider the soul of man as the 
ruin of a glorious pile of buildings ; where, amidst great heaps of rubbish, you 
meet with noble fragments of sculpture, broken pillars and obelisks, and a mag- 
nificence in confusion. Virtue and wisdom are continually employed in clearing 
the ruins, removing these disorderly heaps, recovering the noble pieces that lie 
buried under them, and adjusting them as well as possible according to their 
ancient symmetry and beauty. A happy education, conversation with the finest 
spirits, looking abroad into the works of nature, and observations upon mankind, 
are the great assistances to this necessary and glorious work. But even among 
those who have never had the happiness of any of these advantages there are 
sometimes such exertions of the greatness that is natural to the mind of man as 
show capacities and abilities which only want these accidental helps to fetch 
them out, and show them in a proper light. — Sir R. Steele. 

One can love any man that is generous. — Hawthorne. 

You can take almost anything in life and read it until it is bright, or read it 
until it is dark. Listen for sweet notes rather than for discord, picking up mari- 
golds and harebells in preference to thistles and coloquintida, culturing thyme 
and anemones rather than nightshade, hanging our window-blinds so we can 
hoist them to let the Hght in ; and in a world where God hath put exquisite 
tinge upon the shell washed in the surf, and planted a paradise of bloom in a 
little child's cheek, and adorned the pillars of the rock by hanging tapestry of 
morning mist, the lark saying, " I will sing soprano," and the cascade replying, 
^'I will carry the bass," let us leave the owl to hoot, and the frog to croak, and 
the bear to growl, and the fault-finder to complain. — Talmage. 

Laughing cheerfulness throws sunlight on all the paths of life. — Richter. 

Our judgments are yet sick, and obey the humor of our depraved manners. 
I observe most of the wits of these times pretend to ingenuity by endeavoring to 
hlemish and to darken the glory of the bravest and most generous actions of 
former ages, putting one vile interpretation or another upon them, and forging 
and supposing vain causes and motives for those noble things they did. A 
mighty subtility indeed ! Give me the greatest and most unblemished action 
that ever the day beheld, and I will contrive a hundred plausible drifts and ends 
to obscure it. — Montaigne. 

Let's oftener talk of noble deeds, 

And rarer of the bad ones, 
And sing about our happy days, 

And not about the sad ones. 



APPENDIX. 699 

We are not made to fret and sigh, 

And when grief sleeps to wake it : 
Bright happiness is standing by — 

Tliis hfe is what we make it. 

Let's find the sunny side of men, 

Or be behevers in it ; 
A Ught there is in every soul 

That takes the pains to win it. 
Oh ! there's a slumbering good in all, 

And we perchance may wake it ; 
Our hands contain the magic wand — 

This life is what we make it. 

Then here's to those whose loving hearts 

Shed light and joy about them ! 
Thanks be to them for countless gems 

We ne'er had known without them. 
Oh ! this should be a happy woi'ld 

To all who may partake it : 
The fault's our own if it is not — 

This life is what we make it. 

— Anon. 



Index. 



Afghans, 427. 

Africa, 50. 

Albanians, 502. 

Americans, 559. 

Arabs, 25. 

Araucanians, 443, 

Armenians, 428. 

Australians, 131. 

Baluchi, 427. 

Basque Provinces, 48. 

Bechuanas, 58. 

Bedween, 2G. 

Bengalees, 250. 

Berbers, 459. 

Brazilians, 297. 

Bretons, 74. 

Bulgarians, 492. 

Calcutta, 261. 

Caucasians, 467. 

Central American Indians, 440. 

€haco Indians, 441. 

Chilians, 443. 

Chinese, 357. 

Circassians, 446. 

Cubans, 475. 

Dutch, 135. 

Druses, 31. 

Dyaks, 123. 

Egyptians, 451. 

English, 514. 

Eskimos, 241. 

Fijians, 125. 

Filipinos, 231. 

J'rance, 70. 



Friendly Islands, 125. . 
Fuegians, 447. 
Georgians, 468. 
Germans, 503. 
Greeks, 499. 
Guianian Indians, 442. 
Gypsies, 78. 
Hawaiians, 195. 
Hindus, 245. 
Holland, 135. 
Hottentots, 59. 
Hungary, 469. 
Iceland, 109. 
Indians, 209. 
India, 273. 
Lish, 545. 
Italy, 82. 
Japanese, 161. 
Jews, 393. 
Kabyles, 460. 
Kaffirs, 56. 
Koreans, 430. 
Kurds, 427. 
Lacotahs, 216. 
Laplanders, 100. 
Luzon, 232, 237. 
Madagascar, 149. 
Magyars, 469. 
Makalolos, 57. 
Malagasy, 149. 
Malay Archipelago, 120. 
Malays, 125. 
Manganjo Tribe, 55. 
Maoris, 114. 



(601) 



602 



iNr^x. 



Mexicans, 187. 

Montenegrins, 493. 

Moors, 456. 

Morocco, 45G. 

Negro, 303. 

New Zealanders, 114. 

Norway, 99. 

Oceanic Group, 114. 

Ovambos, 59. 

Papuans, 129. 

Par sees, 253. 

Patagonians, 444. 

Persians, 425. 

Peruvians, 441. 

Philippines, 281. 

Polynesians, 113. 

Portuguese, 449. 

Red Indians of British America, 213. 

Russians, 141. 

Samoyedes, 144. 

Samoans, 126. 

Sardinia, 95. 

Scotch, 525. 

Serbs, 491. 

Servia, 491. 

Siamese, 433. 



Siberia, 143. 
Sicily, 95. 
Sioux, 218. 
Slavs, 491. 
Society Islands, 124. 
South America, 439. 
Spain, 41. 

Spanish America, 439. 
Sumatra, 144. 
Sweden, 99. 
Swiss, 485. 
Syria, 36. 
Tagalagos, 232. 
Tahitians, 1 14, 124. 
Tibetans, 347. 
Tongans, 125. 
Turks, 417. 
Turkomans, 420, 
Tuscans, 85. 
Venetians, 86. 
Wales, 553. 
Welsh, 553. 
Winnebagoes, 211. 
Yakuts, 419. 
Youba People, 67. 
Zulus, 57. 



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